The State Department on Monday accused Russia of threatening American journalists in Moscow and denied the Kremlin’s accusations that the Biden administration was censoring Russian journalists in the United States.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, condemned reports that the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned American journalists to a meeting on Monday and warned that their visas and credentials could be compromised. risked retaliation against what it called the US government’s hostility towards Russian reporters in the US. .
Mr. Price said: “Intimidating professional journalists simply for trying to do their job and trying to block the Russian population from any foreign information shows the fragility and fragility of the way the wall is built. of the Russian government.
First Reuters report on Monday that a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova – who was sanctioned by the Biden administration last week – told American journalists at the meeting that Russian journalists in the US had faced problems with visa renewals, harassment by US intelligence agencies, and frozen bank accounts. Ms. Zakharova is said to have warned that American journalists in Russia could face similar problems with visas, credentials and banking.
Mr. Price said the Biden administration continued to issue visas to “qualified” Russian journalists in the United States, and did not revoke their certificates.
The Finance Ministry last month sanctioned three media outlets it said were directly or indirectly owned by the Russian state: Russia-1, Channel One and NTV. Mr. Price said their revenue “supports President Putin’s fight”. “Many other independent and state-affiliated organizations remain inactive,” he added.
Major US private media platforms such as YouTube and Google have blocked other Kremlin-sponsored Russian media, including RT and Sputnik, although not at the behest of the US government.
Mr. Price said that Moscow was creating a “false equivalence” by suggesting that the US was censoring reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He noted that Russia has criminalized the use of the word “war” to describe its military operation, which the Kremlin has described as a “special operation”. A new law signed by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in March also allows prison sentences of up to 15 years for those who spread “fake” information about the conflict.
“The Russian government fundamentally and knowingly disregards what it means to have a free press, as evidenced by the fact that it has blocked or banned most independent Russian agencies from attempting to report inside the soil,” said Price. their water.
