“In addition, the French tried to break his phone,” explained Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, commenting on the incident that occurred during the G20 summit.
A journalist has not been able to attend the press conference of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, which was held this Sunday during the G20 Summit, because she represented a Russian media outlet, denounced the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova.
“Today, the editor-in-chief of the federal news portal Russia News, Yekaterina Nadolskaya, was rudely denied access to French President Emmanuel Macron’s press conference on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. Besides, the french tried to break his phone“, explained the diplomat on her Telegram channel.
“The reason for such discrimination, as directly stated by an employee of the French press service, is that the journalist specifically represents a russian media“, accurate.
According to Zakharova, such acts are a clear example of “racial discrimination and violations of the fundamental principles of democracy“. “Such a policy, imbued with falsehood, arrogance and a complex of exclusivity” will end up acting against those who promote it, she said. The spokesperson stressed that Moscow describes the incident as “blatant manifestation of racism and aggressive nationalism“, because it is based “on an act of discrimination based on nationality.”
The diplomat pointed out that France is not only carrying out “a witch hunt” against Russian journalists on the territory of his country, but now “has no qualms about exporting this disdain for pluralism of opinions and media rights” beyond Western borders. “That is, to countries and regions to which France has been preaching democracy and freedom of expression for decades,” he said.
“We demand an apology from the Elysee Palace to the representative of the media“said Zakharova, emphasizing that representatives of 11 French media outlets currently have accreditation in Russia. “All of them have free access to participate in the press events of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” she highlighted, at the same time that recalled that no one prevented an AFP correspondent and his cameraman from attending the press conference of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, during the G20 summit.
Source: RT
