EU Parliament Draft on Counteracting Russian Media 'Discrimination' - Moscow

On Wednesday, the European Parliament will consider a draft resolution equating counteracting Sputnik news agency and RT TV channel with resistence to Daesh propaganda. The resolution proposed by EU lawmaker from Poland Anna Elzbieta Fotyga on EU strategic communication to counteract propaganda against the bloc by third parties, which says that Russia is allegedly engaged in propaganda against the European Union.

Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov told RT that "it is a discrimination of rights of Russian media."

According to Dolgov, Russia will continue to raise the issue concerning the attempts to prohibit Russian media in different countries because it is "a discrimination and a clear violation of international norms."

He said that the authors of the resolution use the 'Russian propaganda' myth to receive financing of anti-Russian campaigns.

"The authors of such initiatives are afraid of the effective work of Russian media, TV channels, including RT," Dolgov said.

"This is a violation not only of OSCE decisions, international norms about the freedom of media and freedom of expression, but the violation of the rights of EU citizens," he emphasized.

The draft resolution claims that Russia is allegedly providing opposition political parties and organization in the EU member states with financial support, using bilateral interstate relations to divide the bloc. The Sputnik news agency, the RT channel, the Russkiy Mir foundation and the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Cultural Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) are named as main information threats to the European Union.

According to the EU Observer media outlet, the working group on information counteracting Russia may get 1 million euros ($1.06 million) to pursue the above-mentioned aim. The non-binding draft document says that Russia is allegedly "aggressively employing a wide range of tools and instruments" to weaken the European Union.

In order to counteract the so-called Russian propaganda, the document calls on the EU members states to cooperate with NATO to develop mechanisms of coordinated strategic communications and countering hybrid threats.