Russian Union of Journalists expresses its bewilderment regarding the position of French Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, Sep 12 (SABAH): The Foreign Ministry of France decided not to comment on the statement by Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, who talked about Russian journalists being denied access to a news conference by President of France Emmanuel Macron, while also accusing her of “blowing things out of proportion.”

“We do not have any comments regarding the statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman who is well known for her exaggerations,” the French Foreign Ministry said in response to a media inquiry regarding the refusal to grant Russian journalists access to Macron’s news conference on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in India.

For the record, Yekaterina Nadolskaya, a Russian journalist, was denied access and could not hear Macron speak. At the same time, 11 French journalists have been accredited in Russia and can attend any official events.

Responding to this incident, the Russian Foreign Ministry asked France to present its apologies for “racial discrimination and aggressive nationalism.”

At the same time, the Russian Union of Journalists expresses its outmost bewilderment regarding the position of the Foreign Ministry of France and its decision not to recognise the obvious fact that journalists are facing discrimination on ethnic grounds, as well as that it did not find it necessary to at least present its official apology to Russia. The Russian Union of Journalists believes this approach to addressing this situation to be unprofessional and most likely motivated by the desire to avoid any accountability.

The Russian Union of Journalists would also like to note that this was not the first incident of the kind; in fact, it was part of a series of intentional acts by the French authorities to make it impossible for Russian journalists to do their work in the normal course of business.

In his comment for RT, Head of the Russian Union of Journalists Vladimir Solovyov said this was an “extremely unpleasant” incident. “Not just Russian journalists, but their fellow colleagues from other countries were also prevented from attending the news conference by President of France Emmanuel Macron. It seems that he is afraid of taking questions from anyone other than his own journalists who submitted their questions in advance, so they ordered that all others be denied access,” Vladimir Solovyov pointed out.