MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Western politicians, including in the United States, are "afraid" of Russian media and therefore conducting a discriminatory policy of blockade, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"Certain politicians in the West and in the Baltic countries, in Poland, in the United States, bureaucrats in Brussels are afraid, because they understand that this — access to Russian media — will wipe out the blockade that they themselves have established, which is completely artificial, I believe," Dolgov said.
The New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media forum is taking place on June 6-7 in the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency in Moscow. The event deals with the changing nature of contemporary journalism and is attended by media experts from over 30 countries.
"I said it yesterday, and other members of the discussion said it as well, that trying to cut people off from certain news outlets today is an absolutely fruitless activity, especially due to social media, where information is spread very quickly…Of course, you can block a TV broadcast, but you're unlikely to be able to cut off millions of, say, Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens from Russian media. And overall, banning culture, banning mass media is the last thing one should do. It's an absolutely fruitless stance, a fearful one, and, of course, illegal, violating basic rights, the fundamental right to access information," he added.
