Russia Accuses West of Totalitarian Censorship and Double Standards on World Press Freedom Day
Kathmandu — Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria V. Zakharova issued a sharp commentary on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (May 3), accusing Western nations of imposing “totalitarian censorship” in the information sphere, purging dissent, and continuing “hybrid aggression” against Russia.
Zakharova noted that the purpose of this day, proclaimed by a United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1993, is to serve as a reminder of the importance of free access to information, media pluralism, and ensuring safe working conditions for journalists. However, she said the current situation in the sphere of information and communication is undergoing ongoing degradation. “At the core of this regression is the focus of the states of the ‘Collective West’ and its satellite countries to uncompromisingly sterilise their information space and cleanse it of any manifestations of dissent,” she stated.
She said total intolerance to other views, as a derivative of the myth of self-exclusivity, has become the motif of pseudo-democrats’ policies to plant totalitarian censorship, Russophobia, propaganda of war, and ideas of superiority over the rest of the world. “At the same time, hybrid aggression is unleashed and carried out against our country with an unweakening intensity, affecting the media space and its digital dimension,” she added.
Zakharova highlighted that violations of the professional rights of Russian journalists and media by hypocritical “supporters” of freedom of speech are taking on ever new, often disgusting forms — up to fabricated criminal cases, threats, violence, and various kinds of pressure against correspondents themselves and their families. “Imposing a complete disruption of ties with Russia and all things Russian, practiced by regimes hostile to our country in the Baltic countries, Moldova and Ukraine, has been legalised in the form of legal rules that oppress Russian language, culture, and canonical Orthodox faith, allowing vandalism in relation to memorial heritage and purposeful rewriting of history,” she charged.
She said proficient international institutions such as UNESCO and the OSCE continue to turn a blind eye to the monstrous crimes of the Kiev regime against civilians, including media personnel, while ignoring deliberate killings and attacks on Russian journalists and soldiers. “We, in turn, will not allow them to hide their heads in the sand and will continue to insist on seeking an objective reaction to every fact of crime or terrorist attack against Russian citizens,” she stated.
Zakharova concluded that the true value of World Press Freedom Day lies not in solemn speeches detached from reality, but in the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire international system of defence of this basic principle of the information society.
