MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) -Western media often distorts facts when covering the situation in eastern Ukraine, using the official Kiev line as their only source of information, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova said Thursday.
“They do not cover the other side of the conflict and get the information from official Kiev only,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s deputy director of information and press said in an interview with the LifeNews television channel.
As an example of partial media coverage, Zakharova mentioned an incident in which more than 400 Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border to ask Russia for help and protection.
“That very same day, the [Russian] Defense Ministry aircraft leaving for Rostov Region was ready to take on board a group of foreign journalists for a one-day trip. We started gathering such a group. When in an hour I got the list I couldn’t believe my own eyes. There was not a single US correspondent apart from the Bloomberg agency. But if a journalist refuses to speak to the initial source [of information], the question is what information does the CNN, the New York Times base their articles and where do they get this information from?,” Zakharova said.
Zakharova also spoke about a press conference with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held late July which foreign correspondents were invited to attend. According to her, not a single leading news agency reported any news from that conference. When approached on the matter, the journalists said that a picture of Lavrov was enough for them. “[Here] I would even use the word partiality and sometimes just pure lies,” Zakharova commented.
Earlier in August, Zakharova voiced concerns on her Facebook page about the partiality of the Euronews television channel in its coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.
