Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team is displaying a “desperate lack of professionalism” with its response to a new Russian law threatening restrictions for foreign-based media, according to a senior diplomat in Moscow.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s barbs were the latest salvo in a war of words over how the U.S. and Russian governments treat foreign media in each country. The Justice Department compelled a Kremlin-run outlet known as RT, formerly Russia Today, to register as a foreign agent, which triggered the passage of a retaliatory law in Moscow.
“New Russian legislation that allows the Ministry of Justice to label media outlets as ‘foreign agents’ and to monitor or block certain internet activity presents yet another threat to free media in Russia,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a Tuesday evening statement. “Freedom of expression — including speech and media which a government may find inconvenient — is a universal human rights obligation Russia has pledged to uphold.”
That drew charges of hypocrisy from Zakharova. “Such comments issued by the U.S. show not only its deliberate intention to further aggravate bilateral relations and constantly meddle in Russia’s domestic affairs, but also to the desperate lack of professionalism within its bureaucratic machine that has been stuck in an intellectual crisis for years,” she wrote Wednesday morning in a Facebook post.
That exchange followed reports that Russia is developing a plan to ban the distribution of western print media, potentially including major papers such as the New York Times and other privately owned publications.
“Foreign newspapers suspected of violating Russia’s anti-extremism law or ‘abusing media freedoms’ could be targeted under the new provisions,” as the Moscow Times explained, citing another Russian outlet. “Under the procedure, local Roskomnadzor offices will be responsible for flagging suspected violations, setting in motion a 16-day process of checks that can result in an order to cancel the newspaper’s publication license, Kommersant reported citing the document.”
Those restrictions are nothing like the requirement that a media outlet run by a foreign government register as a foreign agent, according to Tillerson’s team.
“Furthermore, the Russian Government’s attempt to justify new, media-focused legislation as a response to the transparency requirements in the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) is disingenuous and inappropriate,” Nauert said. “FARA does not police the content of information disseminated, does not limit the publication of information or advocacy materials, and does not restrict an organization’s ability to operate.”
