MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution on countering Russian media outlets, such as the Sputnik news agency and the RT broadcaster. As many as 304 voted in favor the document, 179 voted against and 208 abstained. With a total of 691 officials taking part in the vote, less than half supported the resolution, which draws parallel between Russian strategic communication and the propaganda disseminated by Daesh terrorist organization.
"I do not think it is correct to view the work of Russian or any other country's media and terrorist groups in the same context. I also think that it is wrong to designate the work of media of any country as an instrument of propaganda. If propaganda is in place, then you should prove it with arguments and use an individual approach, but not by means of mass stigmatization," Cosic said.
Cosic expressed concern over this resolution and said that Serbia had faced a very negative experienced of the "group stigmatization."
"When NATO bombed headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia in 1999 explaining it as 'struggle against [then-President Slobodan] Milosevic's propaganda machine, 16 of our colleagues were killed," Cosic said.
Sputnik has responded to adoption of the resolution by calling the move a direct violation of media freedom and human rights, while Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the matter by pointing out that the document indicates a degradation of democracy in the West. Praising Sputnik and RT for their work, the president expressed hope that real media restrictions would not follow.
