Media

[TsarSamuil]

Russian reporter whose arm was broken by cop at St Petersburg polling station fined $35 for disobedience.

RT.com
27 Jul, 2020 20:45

A Russian reporter has been fined for not following the instruction of a police officer who broke his arm at a polling station, during last month’s vote on far-reaching amendments to Russia’s constitution.

David Frenkel, a correspondent for the alternative media outlet Mediazona, was fined 2,500 rubles ($35) by Saint Petersburg's Dzerzhinsky District Court, for a combination of interfering with the work of the election commission and for not obeying the command of a law enforcement officer.

On June 30, Frenkel was restrained by a policeman and an election observer during the country’s plebiscite on proposed constitutional amendments, after the journalist refused to leave a polling station following a request of the local commissioner. The Mediazona website was founded by Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.

According to reports at the time, the station’s head had refused to fill out the paperwork to register Frenkel as an observer. When being taken out of the building, the journalist’s arm was broken, and he subsequently underwent surgery.

“I was grabbed by the arm, and they twisted it. I tumbled to the floor, and they punched my right forearm. After all that, my arm was broken, and I screamed very loudly in pain,” he explained, shortly after the incident.

The police report against Frenkel explained that he’d “resisted” and “pushed employees away,” which “provoked a conflicted situation” at the voting site. The policeman responsible for the arm break, Denis Dmitriev, explained that he’d removed the journalist at the request of the polling station’s chairperson.

[TsarSamuil]

YouTube mysteriously bans Ukrainian opposition leader just before crucial elections in Ukraine, US government blamed by party.

RT.com
24 Oct, 2020 14:05

The YouTube channel of Viktor Medvedchuk, co-chair of Ukraine's main opposition party, has been suspended just as the country holds crucial municipal elections. Medvedchuk is known for advocating improved relations with Russia.

A controversial figure in Ukraine, the opposition leader rejects the anti-Moscow line to which most other political forces in the crisis-ridden country adhere. For example, earlier this month he called on Kiev to purchase the Russian-developed vaccine against Covid-19, Sputnik V, which he claimed he had tested on himself.

The suspension of Medvedchuk's YouTube channel came out of the blue with no explanation from the video service, which now labels it with a generic message that it had violated terms of service. His party, Opposition platform – For Life, called it an act of political retaliation by the US government for his Russia-friendly, West-skeptical position. Officials didn't explain why they believe Washington was behind the move.

Before being banned, the channel had more than 70,000 subscribers, with some videos scoring over a million views. The party bragged that its co-chair was more popular on YouTube than any other major Ukrainian politician, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The ban was reported on Saturday, the day before Ukraine holds municipal elections throughout the country. Zelensky's Servant of the People party is fighting an uphill battle to produce a result even remotely comparable to the landslide victories it won last year in national contests.

During the July 2019 general election, the president's party secured a huge majority in the 450-seat Ukrainian parliament, taking 254 seats. Medvedchuk's party came a distant second with 43 seats. Recent opinion polls ahead of Sunday's vote suggest that the Servant of the People party could end up behind both Medvedchuk's grouping, and that of former president, Petro Poroshenko.

What the US normally does to other countries they do at home now..

Sen. Ted Cruz to Twitter CEO: "Mr Dorsey, who the hell elected you...?"

C-SPAN
Oct 28, 2020



Sen. Ted Cruz to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: "Mr Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?"

[TsarSamuil]

What happened to that censorship, Twitter? Ex-Malaysian PM says Muslims have RIGHT TO KILL millions of French.

RT.com
29 Oct, 2020 14:17

As knife-wielding attackers terrorized France and killed three people, Malaysia’s outspoken former prime minister said that “Muslims have a right to punish the French” with murder. His comments sparked outrage online.

France was left reeling on Thursday from a series of apparent terrorist attacks. A knife-wielding man shouted “Allahu akbar” as he slaughtered three people in a church in Nice; police in Avignon shot another knifeman dead as he lunged for them shouting the Arabic slogan; and in Saudi Arabia, police arrested a man who stabbed a guard outside the French consulate in Jeddah. All three attacks come amid a countrywide crackdown on Islamic extremism, launched after a teacher was beheaded in Paris for showing students a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took to Twitter seemingly in a bid to defend the attackers. “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past,” he wrote, without elaborating on which “massacres” he meant. In a rant spanning multiple tweets, Mohamad added that “the Muslims have a right to punish the French.”

Mohamad called French President Emmanuel Macron “very primitive” for blaming the teacher’s beheading on “the evil that is radical Islam,” and demanded the French government “teach their people to respect other people’s feelings,” or risk Muslims applying “the ‘eye for an eye’ law” – which he said they “by and large” have not applied yet.

The former PM did include a watery condemnation of the beheading, calling it “not an act that as a Muslim I would approve.”

Mohamad has landed himself in trouble for inflammatory comments before, including his remarks on “hook-nosed” Jews and for defending his country’s prosecution of gay people. His comments on France triggered another wave of condemnation, but some pundits were also outraged at Twitter for allowing his tweets to remain online, despite censoring US President Donald Trump and banning links to damaging information about his election opponent, Joe Biden.

Twitter did attach a notice to the tweet later on Thursday, warning viewers that while it glorified violence, "it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

During a hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his platform’s censorship of Trump and his supporters. When asked why Twitter removed tweets by the president about mail-in voting but allowed Iran’s Ayatollah to post threats to Israel, Dorsey replied that Trump’s comments “can cause more immediate harm.”

Mohamad served twice as Malaysia’s prime minister, from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 until his resignation in March 2020. While his comments were notably extreme, current leadership in the country has also taken a dim view of Macron's crackdown. Earlier this week, the country’s foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, telling him that Macron’s defense of the right to publish offensive cartoons constituted “inflammatory rhetoric” and “provocative acts that seek to defame the religion of Islam.”

[TsarSamuil]

Now he notices..

‘Founding principles HAVE BEEN LOST’: Macron blasts US media for legitimizing Islamist violence after wave of terrorist attacks.

RT.com
16 Nov, 2020 22:30

French President Emmanuel Macron has accused the US media of “legitimizing” Islamist violence and smearing his country as racist after a series of terrorist attacks that began with the beheading of a schoolteacher in October.

Macron reportedly called New York Times columnist Ben Smith on Thursday to complain about media coverage of France’s latest round of Islamist violence, contrasting reaction around the world to the outpouring of international support for France following the terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015.

“When I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values – journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – when I see them legitimizing this violence and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost,” Macron told Smith in a column published on Saturday.

Islamist terrorists have killed more than 250 people in France since 2015, the most among Western countries. The latest wave began when teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 16 by an 18-year-old jihadist migrant in suburban Paris. Paty was allegedly targeted for showing his middle-school students cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed for a lesson on freedom of expression.

Macron responded by honoring Paty and defending free-speech rights and France’s culture of secularism. His government carried out dozens of raids on individuals and Islamic groups accused of radicalism. More attacks followed, including the stabbing murders of three people in Nice – including one who was decapitated by a Tunisian migrant. Angered by Macron’s aggressive response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a boycott of French products.

As the crisis unfolded, Macron was stung as he saw Western media outlets appearing to blame France for the attacks. A Financial Times headline declared, “Macron’s war on Islamic separatism only divides France further,” while the Washington Post opined that “instead of fighting systemic racism, France wants to reform Islam.” The New York Times published an opinion piece asking, “Is France fueling Muslim terrorism by trying to prevent it?” The Times’ first headline about the beheading of Paty also raised eyebrows in Paris: “French police shoot and kill man after a fatal knife attack on the street.”

Smith was largely dismissive of Macron’s complaints, noting that the French president is preparing for his 2022 re-election campaign and may be acting a “little Trumpian” by attacking the press to advance his agenda. He added that “picking fights with American media is also an old sport in France.”

Dutch journalist Heiko Jessayan said he found Macron’s arguments compelling. “Macron is right,” he tweeted. “The Anglo-Saxon world and NATO seem to justify Islamism and Turkish violence against Armenians.”

Another commenter agreed, saying “fanatical political correctness” has caused American media outlets to abandon the “basic foundations of Western culture and civil society.” The observer added, “American media, caught up in their kindergarten-level political scene and argumentation, have been supporting one side or the other of it no matter the cost.”

But writer Farrah Raja said criticism of France’s response was justified. “It is shocking to find a French president who is not open to the views of humanity, diversity and equality,” she said. “Yes, it brings challenges, too, and it is resolved through interfaith dialogues and social inclusion.”

Local television anchor Travis Mayfield of Seattle said the row with Macron was being overblown. “I’m 100 percent sure this entire New York Times article was written exclusively so the columnist could say, ‘So, President Emmanuel Macron of France called me on Thursday afternoon...”

Smith noted that the Financial Times had deleted an online article in which it misquoted Macron, and Politico removed an opinion piece that critics attacked for allegedly blaming the victims of terrorism. Liz Goodwin, the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau chief, said those moves will lead to more controversy: “I’m sure the cancel-culture community will be up in arms over this,” she tweeted.

[TsarSamuil]

Criminal cases against Sputnik journalists in Latvia are affront to ‘foundations of democratic society’ – Russian Foreign Ministry.

RT.com
4 Dec, 2020 07:44


Moscow has said that the criminal cases launched against journalists working with the Russian state-funded Sputnik news agency in Latvia run against the freedom of speech and are "completely unacceptable."

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s media department blasted the actions against the Sputnik staff and other Russian-speaking journalists, in the Baltic country, as “an outrageous example of the violation of the core of foundations of a democratic society: the freedom of the media and the freedom of expression.”

The ministry’s statement said the allegations that the journalists working for Sputnik had violated European Union sanctions were “completely unacceptable.”

The ministry argued that the sanctions were imposed on Russian journalist Dmitry Kiselyov, the chief of the state-backed ‘Rossiya Segodnya’ media group, which controls Sputnik, and "cannot apply to everyone" who works with the group in some way.

The ministry promised to raise the issue at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

On Thursday, Latvian media reported that police searched the homes of several journalists working with Russian-language news website Baltnews, which is part of the same media group as Sputnik. The head of the outlet, Andrejs Starikovs, said that the homes of at least six journalists were searched.

Local activist Aleskandr Gaponenko said two journalists were detained and later released after questioning. One of the released journalists, Andrej Yakovlev, wrote on social media that police were questioning him for eight hours and have seized all of his electronic devices. He said he had previously received a notice that a criminal case was launched against him for violating “Latvian and international sanctions.”

Officials in Latvia, as well as in neighboring Lithuania and Estonia, often accuse Russian-owned media outlets of being corrosive “propaganda” arms of the Kremlin.

In June, Latvia’s media regulator banned the broadcast of seven TV channels operating under RT’s brand, citing sanctions against Kiselyov. However, RT is not part of ‘Rossiya Segodnya’, which is led by Kiselyov. The journalist said the decision to target RT had showcased “the level of stupidity and lack of knowledge of Latvian authorities, blinded by Russophobia.”

[TsarSamuil]

Ex-Russian presidential candidate Sobchak lashes out at ‘CIA officers’ running US state media RFE/RL after top journalist fired.

RT.com
8 Dec, 2020 09:31

Journalist, liberal society fixture, and former presidential candidate Kseniya Sobchak has launched a blistering attack on US state media operating in Russia, after it fired a journalist for “criticizing Alexey Navalny.”

“The real VGTRK [Russia’s state broadcasting company] is now in Prague,” said of Current Time TV’s parent company RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). “Of course, there is no longer any free press in America – at least for foreign markets. So, shame on Current Time.”

On December 3, Timur Olevsky was sacked after publicly discussing a conspiracy theory that Navalny’s now-deceased father-in-law had been a security services agent living in London. Olevsky apologized to the well-known opposition activist, but lost his job in any case, for digging into the family’s private life.

“Olevsky is a noble man,” Sobchak wrote on Telegram. “And those old ex-CIA officers who rule Current Time and Radio Liberty are not.”

Sobchak accused the US government-run outlet of “firing their most famous journalist for criticizing Navalny,” and thereby “throwing a bone to the dumbest propaganda.”

According to the former socialite, Olevsky did nothing wrong by “blurting out” stories about Navalny, likening the activist’s very private social life to that of President Vladimir Putin.

In her post, Sobchak lambasted the Prague-based US-government mouthpiece for being worse than VGTRK, the broadcaster of most of the country’s most popular TV channels. She also took aim at the editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan.

Sobchak is the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, the former mayor of St. Petersburg and erstwhile ally of Putin. In the early 2000s, she was known as the host of reality show ‘Dom-2’. She quit the program in 2012, turning away from low-brow entertainment and towards serious journalism, and eventually hosted a show on liberal TV Rain and MTV Russia. In 2018, she ran in the country’s presidential election, coming fourth. Sobchak is now the host of a wildly successful YouTube show, which regularly garners a million views per episode.

[TsarSamuil]

Months after Twitter shadow-bans RT, Putin signs law to fine & block social media giants that censor Russian media sources.

RT.com
30 Dec, 2020 10:37

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved new legislation that could see foreign social media companies punished for discriminating against the country’s media outlets. This year, RT and Sputnik have been censored on Twitter.

The bill explicitly forbids censorship based on reasons such as nationality, language, and origin, as well as “in connection with the introduction of political or economic sanctions against Russia.”

Once found guilty, a foreign network, such as YouTube or Facebook, could be subject to sanctions in the form of fines, the slowing down of traffic, or even a complete block.

Earlier this year, US tech giant Twitter took action against RT and other publicly-funded Russian media outlets, subjecting their accounts to a shadow ban. This means that they are now undiscoverable via the website’s search function.

As well as making tweets much harder to find, Twitter also labeled several Russian sources as “state-affiliated media,” despite not doing so for Western equivalents, such as America’s state-run RFE/RL and the British government-backed BBC.

After the bill was proposed, President Putin noted that the country should not “shoot itself in the foot” with any retaliatory actions against foreign media, but it is “absolutely obvious and understandable to any sane person” that these companies are discriminating against Russian outlets.

The law was introduced last month by a group of parliamentarians, including MP Alexander Khinshtein and Senator Aleksey Pushkov. According to Pushkov, the law wasn’t written with the aim of blocking the websites, but to introduce legal responsibility for censorship.

“The goal is not to block resources, but is to clarify the rules according to which these companies must operate in Russia,” he explained, speaking to Moscow news outlet TASS.

Another of the bill’s authors, MP Anton Gorelkin, explained that “the state should always have a hard option in reserve for particularly malicious violators of the law,” and this law does that.