Prisa Media, the publishing house of EL PAÍS, expressed this Friday its rejection of a press release in which the Russian embassy in Colombia accuses W Radio for not “drawing a very clear line between freedom of opinion and flirting with the ideology of terrorism. The reason for the diplomatic delegation’s statement was an interview conducted by the station with former Russian Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, entitled “Moscow regime will fall after losing the war against Ukraine: Ilya Ponomarev” and broadcast this Wednesday.
The response from the publishing house has been clear. “Prisa Media rejects the terms of the statement from the Russian embassy in Colombia against W Radio, after an interview with one of the actors in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The exercise of journalism is guided by the ethical principles of the trade and not by the interests of the parties in conflict. We consider that the comment of the Russian embassy pointing to W Radio as an instigator of terrorism is a threat against freedom of expression”.
In the interview, the former opposition Putin deputy, the only one who voted against the unilateral annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014, spoke about the recent attack by military members opposed to Putin, under the cover of Ukraine, on the Russian province of Belgorod. A spokesman for the so-called Russian Freedom Legion, a group of four Russian battalions opposed to Putin and who led that attack, explained that the operation sought to reveal its existence and seek more internal support in Russia: “It is a clear message to send him to the Russians that this resistance exists and that it is possible to make progress”, explained Ponomarev, who affirmed that the Legion does not receive support from the West but it does receive weapons from Ukraine.
In response to that interview with Ponomarev, the following day the Russian Embassy published on its website and on its social networks the statement that begins: “The Russian Embassy in Colombia expresses its deepest indignation at the material” journalistic, which it describes of “extremist”. It also calls on W Radio to “actively condemn extremist ideas promoted by such hateful material.”
“The Embassy insists that WRadio, as the representative of the Colombian media, assumes full responsibility for the content it publishes and for granting its platform to such types of people, as well as actively condemning the extremist ideas that the material promotes. that hateful nature. A very clear line must be drawn between freedom of opinion and flirting with the ideology of terrorism ”, he concludes.
Given the statement and its pressure against freedom of expression, W Radio has received the support of very diverse figures. For example, the journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo responded on her Twitter account “It’s called freedom of information. Welcome”, and Daniel Samper Ospina sarcastically asked “that La W then first pass the list of who it intends to interview so that the Russian embassy approves it”. Congressmen from various shores reacted the same, above their positions towards the Government. For example, the government member Heraclito Landínez recalled via Twitter that “in Colombia there is freedom of the press in a democratic system and journalism must be done without pressure, without impositions or censorship, and even less for this type of messages from diplomatic missions. As a congressman, I reject that pressure,” and opposition senator David Luna described the statement as “pure and physical censorship. It is very serious that the Russian Embassy in Colombia tries to control who can and cannot be interviewed by a station, that is a total disrespect for press freedom”.
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