Washington Assesses Media Conflicts In Russia And Other Countries By Using Double Standards

When assessing media conflicts in Russia and other countries, Washington uses double standards. This point of view was expressed in an interview with RIA Novosti by an official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Yakovenko, as he commented on a statement by a US State Department spokesman on events around NTV television network, the Segodnya newspaper and the Itogi magazine. "As it is, Washington does not hide that in its assessments it is guided above all by political motives that have nothing to do with freedom of speech," the diplomat emphasised. He called attention to the fact that the US Department of State, "probably carried away by developments in Russia", passed over in total silence the labour conflict that erupted in the US recently between journalists of the news service of the largest national television channel ABC and the Walt Disney holding company that owns it". The cause of the conflict, Yakovenko recalled, is the holding's intention to make the lion's share of planned personnel cut at the expense of ABC journalistic team - about 4,000 people - in view of "financial difficulties". Moreover, the corporation president refused to give any guarantees that the core of the "editorial team" of the television channel will not be touched. "They in the US Department of State demurely remained silent because they know that an iron rule in their country is the owner's right to fire whomever he considers necessary and whenever he likes to do it, guided above all by considerations of commercial sense, which apply to all American mass media," Yakovenko concluded.

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