In recognition of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with journalists today at the Washington Foreign Press Center to talk about the state of world press freedom.
"it is difficult to identify a country where we have seen more setbacks, more destruction to the principle of press freedom and freedom of information than in Russia over the past year," - State Department's spokesperson Ned Price told TURAN's correspondent during the daily press briefing on Monday.
"... [A]nd especially in Russia over the past few weeks as the Kremlin has seemingly gone into overdrive in its efforts to hide from its own people the toll of this war, the opposition to this war, the fact that this war is not going to – according to plan, or at least not going to the plan that the Kremlin put forward" he said.
The U.S. government has assessed that Russian intelligence was behind an attack earlier this month on a Nobel Prize winner and prominent Russian editor who had criticized the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
"We have seen journalists thrown in jail. We have seen journalists intimidated. We have seen news outlets in Russia be shut down. We have seen news outlets in Russia be essentially forced to close." Price said in response to TURAN's question about the current state of press freedom in Russia.
And on top of that, he added, "we have seen the toll of Russia’s assault on Ukraine; of course, principally, in the first instance, on the Ukrainian people."
"But journalists, reporters have also paid the price. And just late last week, of course, we lost a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was killed in a Russian strike on a residential apartment building outside of Kyiv. She, of course, was not the first journalist to have lost her life in this conflict. Many more journalists have been injured."
"A journalist who should be in this briefing room right here today was injured as a result of Russia’s aggression as well" Price said adding that "this is something we’ll be speaking to in more detail tomorrow" referring to the Secretary's meeting with reporters.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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This year, the laureate of the annual Nargiz Prize, awarded for efforts in the fight for democracy, was Akif Gurbanov, chairman of the board of the Resplatforma (Platform of the III Republic) movement, who is under arrest.
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The U.S. will prohibit the issuing of visas for nearly a dozen more individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, bringing the total number to over 100, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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