The Russian Foreign Ministry recognized the fight against Russian propaganda as a violation of freedom of speech • Meduza • RIMA

The Russian Foreign Ministry recognized the fight against Russian propaganda as a violation of freedom of speech

Alexei Meshkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, said that the proposal to create a Russian-language TV channel in the EU to combat Russian propaganda violates the principle of freedom of speech. “We have always had a positive attitude towards freedom of speech, but the EU plans to create a kind of counter-propaganda channel hardly correspond to the very concept of freedom of speech,” Meshkov said.

Latvia is expected to raise the issue of creating a new television channel for broadcasting to a Russian-speaking audience in the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) and the EU countries at the first meeting of the community's foreign ministers in the new year.

TASS

At the end of December 2014, Edgars Rinkevics, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the EU Presidency of Latvia, promised to seek the creation of a Russian-language TV channel that would broadcast "very accurate news and facts" as well as entertainment programs. According to the minister, there should be no propaganda on the TV channel.
Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma admitted that it would be difficult to enlist the support of all EU countries in creating new media, since the Euronews channel already broadcasts in Russian.
In January 2015, announced Great Britain, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia the need to confront the Russian media. They called Russian propaganda a "real security threat on the EU's eastern borders" and called on EU regulators to take action against Russian media that manipulate facts, deliberately mislead audiences and incite hatred. In doing so, regulators must respect the principle of freedom of expression.
With the support of the government of the Netherlands, the European Endowment for Democracy has launched a study , which should result in recommendations for launching "independent media initiatives in Russian." A grant of half a million euros has been allocated for this work. The results of the work should be presented by the May Eastern Partnership summit in Riga.
In support of the creation of a "pan-European Russian-language channel as a source of objective information" was made by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.