LONDON, July 9 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU) — Citing their role in “spreading disinformation,” Britain’s foreign office has barred Russian news agencies RT and Sputnik from attending a media freedom conference in London this week, Anadolu Agency reported, quoting a statement.
Some 1,000 reporters, journalists, and members of civil society as well as 60 government ministers are set to be at the two-day conference on media freedom, but RT and Sputnik were refused accreditation.
“We have not accredited RT or Sputnik because of their active role in spreading disinformation.While it’s not possible to accommodate all requests for accreditation, journalists from across the world’s media are attending the conference, including from Russia,” said a foreign office statement.
The office did not mention which agencies the attending Russian journalists work for.
The Russian outlets quickly hit back, with RT saying in a statement: “It takes a particular brand of hypocrisy to advocate for freedom of press while banning inconvenient voices and slandering alternative media; sadly, the world has learned to expect just that from the UK (United Kingdom) Foreign Office.”
The Russian Embassy in London branded the move “direct politically motivated discrimination.”
“What better illustration of the real situation with media freedom in the UK does one need? Yet the organisers of the Conference, as far as we understand, wish to discuss the situation with media freedom anywhere in the world, but not in this country,” the embassy said in a press release.
In December 2018, UK media regulator, Office of Communications (Ofcom) found RT to have committed several breaches of the UK’s broadcasting code during its reporting on the poisoning of former Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last year, a poisoning blamed on Russia.
Both RT and Sputnik are funded by the Russian government.
— NNN-BERNAMA-SPUTNIK
