Recognizing Media As Foreign Agents First Step Toward Censorship - IFJ On US Ruling

Decisions to recognize foreign media as foreign agents are merely a step toward censorship, President of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Philippe Leruth told Sputnik on Monday, commenting on the recent US court ruling to register Sputnik's US partner as a foreign agent

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2019) Decisions to recognize foreign media as foreign agents are merely a step toward censorship, President of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Philippe Leruth told Sputnik on Monday, commenting on the recent US court ruling to register Sputnik's US partner as a foreign agent.

Last week, US District Court in Florida determined that RM Broadcasting, LLC, the local partner of Rossiya Segodnya International news Agency and Radio Sputnik USA, must register as a foreign agent.

"The decisions to consider foreign media and in many cases journalists as foreign agents, whether initially in the United States against some Russian media and later in Russia against American media appear to me as a first step towards censorship against those media and journalists," Leruth said.

According to the IFJ chief, described as foreign agents, the media outlets can indeed be denied access to some places or to some information.

"The media's and journalists' role is not to please authorities. And if authorities can sometimes complain that information spread by media or journalists is not correct, they have a large possibility of reactions going from a request for rectification to complaints by ethical bodies or civil jurisdictions," he stressed.

In the meantime, President of Russian Union of Journalists Vladimir Solovyev also criticized the ruling by the US court.

"I believe that it is a consistent attack on all media outlets that do not follow mainstream media [strategies]. That is why it is hard for Russian journalists, especially for RT and Sputnik journalists, to work in western countries. In this case, this pressure on the media may be considered a violation of the first amendment to the US Constitution, which declares freedom of the press," Solovyev told Sputnik.

In the meantime, RM Broadcasting considers appealing the decision, the company's owner, Arnold Ferolito, told Sputnik, following the ruling.

Washington has launched a major crackdown on the Russian media in recent years. Significant pressure was put on RT and Sputnik, with US lawmakers claiming that the media may have been involved in Russia's alleged attempts to influence US 2016 presidential election. RT and Sputnik, as well as Russian government, have repeatedly refuted the allegations as unsubstantiated.