Ambassador Andrey Kemarskiy on Western Standards of Press Freedom
With genuine interest, I have read another creation of my European colleagues. This time it was published in and was dedicated to World Press Freedom Day. I am especially grateful they mentioned our Embassy in that article.
The Midweek Sun
Their attention will inspire us to work even harder to bring to the Botswana public truth about the current events which the Western propaganda labels as disinformation.
Particularly impressive were the allegations that, in the European Union, journalists are free to write what they want and newspapers are free to publish what they want without being harassed or imprisoned. Let us take a look at the real situation there.
Even a brief introduction to the issue indicates that a total control over information has been acquiring new sophisticated forms in the West. International obligations related to freedom of expression, equal access to information, respect for journalists’ rights as well as to media pluralism continue to be shamelessly violated in favour of the political and military interests of certain countries.
Strikingly outrageous is the pathological hypocrisy which has long become
the political tradition of the Western ruling elites. The flywheel of repression against Russian and Russian-language media in Europe and in the US continues to spin.
With the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, Western countries eventually slipped into open dictatorship and turned their controlled journalists into soldiers of the information front.
A large-scale campaign has been launched to suppress independent voices; impartial opinion has been anathematised or exposed to public ostracism. Over the past year, Russian television network Russia Today and news agency Sputnik have been eliminated in the European Union.
To suspend activities of any foreign media that diverges from the Western mainstream and does not fit into the prevailing value doctrine, the European authorities have been using groundless cliché and unwarranted allegations, such as “source of propaganda and disinformation” and “instrument of foreign manipulation and interference”.
The US authorities, for example, are threatening to completely ban the Chinese social network TikTok and impose severe criminal penalties on those who attempt to bypass it.
Congressional bill “The Restrict Act” will give to US regulators unprecedented powers to access any computer and smartphone under the pretext of “combating threats to national security”.
It is worth mentioning that this legislation does not raise any concerns from European nations, which behave as mentors in the field of the freedom of speech.
The rhetoric of the European representatives about protection of journalists’ rights sounds absurd amid the widespread search for “Kremlin agents” that has long become a routine in some EU countries, in particular Baltic States and Poland. A striking example is a criminal trial against 14 journalists whom, in 2020, the Latvian State Security Service accused of “violating the EU sanctions” for having cooperated with media portals Sputnik Latvia and Baltnews.
The reporters are facing up to four years in prison. In Poland, Spanish journalist with dual citizenship (Spain and Russia) Pablo Gonzalez was arrested on February 28, 2022 based on the accusation that he had allegedly spied for Russia while covering the humanitarian crisis on the PolishUkrainian border.
He is still under pre-trial detention. Since there are no maximum terms of detention in Poland, he can spend several years waiting for the trial. Meanwhile, abuses and violations of Julian Assange’s rights have been taking place much longer, and Brussels has been silent about this.
With Western countries’ direct support, the media sphere in the territory controlled by the Kiev regime has been completely cleared. Only those who serve regime’s interests are allowed to work. The level of aggression against opposition or independent journalists is off scale in Ukraine – they are hunted and killed without trial or any investigation. The Ukrainian intelligence organised terrorist acts even in Russia. Journalists Darya Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky died in bomb attacks and renowned writer Zakhar Prilepin was seriously wounded in a car explosion. Russian or Russianspeaking journalists constantly receive threats of reprisals from the Kiev regime, and this does not find any condemnation or criticism in the Western mainstream media.
On December 16, 2022, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation act “On Media” designed to combat all alternative points of view. This act, worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes, introduces a total control over media and allows an extrajudicial ban on any impartial information about Russia. The Western supporters of Kiev remain deafeningly silent about it.
Those are just few examples. More facts would take far more pages.
The point is that the EU representatives should not mislead themselves with an illusion that they have much in common with Botswana in the field of press freedom.
The people of Botswana really enjoy such freedom while the Europeans, unfortunately, are very far from this noble goal now. Precious plants of freedom of expression and genuine democracy withered long time ago there, and it is too late to water and cherish them. It is high time to plant them again.