Russian Media Board To Consider Election Watchdog's Complaint Against AP Agency On Sept 26

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2019) Russia's Public Board for Press Complaints will look into the complaint of Central Election Commission (CEC) chairwoman Ella Pamfilova against the Associated Press (AP) over its interview-based article, which she says distorted her statements, on September 26, the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights said on Monday.

On August 29, just days before Russia's regional elections, the AP news agency published the article titled "Russian Election Chief Defends Ban on Moscow Candidates" after interviewing Pamfilova. According to the latter, the article contained few of her statements scattered across the text, with some of her "phrases taken out of context just to prove the correspondent's case" and thus distorted. The full video interview was, meanwhile, never published. Pamfilova noted that the piece of publication was full of propaganda and censorship and filed a complaint with the public board.

"The Public Board for Press Complaints, co-chaired by the head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov, and former Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, plans to consider the complaint of the chair of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, against the Associated Press news agency at a September 26 meeting," the council said in a statement.

On September 8, Russia held regional elections, including elections to the Moscow's city legislature. Some 57 nominees out of 233 were denied registration due to insufficient number of valid signatures of eligible voters required for admittance to run in the race. The opposition candidates described the denials as an infringement on electoral rights, staging authorized and unauthorized protests in the Russian capital this summer.