The Russian diplomacy has accused France of violating “the fundamental principle of press freedom” and reproached the country for not apologizing to the Russian journalists who were excluded from a press conference during the recent G20 summit. The Russian diplomacy summoned the French ambassador in Moscow on Monday to denounce the discrimination against Russian journalists, accusing Paris of mistreating correspondents during the G20 summit in India.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release that Ambassador Pierre Levy was summoned due to the “discriminatory and clearly Russophobic actions of the representatives of the French authorities against the correspondents of RIA Novosti and the editor-in-chief of Russia-News at the G20 summit in New Delhi.” They were “brutally denied access to a press conference by French President Emmanuel Macron,” the ministry added.
The Russian diplomacy accused France of violating “the fundamental principle of press freedom” and blames it for not apologizing to the Russian journalists who were excluded from the press conference on September 10. Moscow claims that the French organizers of the event tried to confiscate the journalists’ phones.
This incident at the G20 summit was reported by Russia on the same day it happened. At the time, the French presidency did not make any comments, but a member of the delegation refuted the accusations of discrimination and brutality. “We had to refuse about thirty journalists of all nationalities due to lack of space in the room,” said the source, who preferred to remain anonymous.
A correspondent present at the press conference noted that the press room was full and some journalists could not access it. Russia has long accused France of targeting its media representatives, particularly because the Elysée Palace refused to accredit the television channel RT for spreading rumors about Emmanuel Macron.
In 2017, when hosting Vladimir Putin in France, President Macron reiterated that RT and the news website Sputnik were “organs of lying propaganda.”
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