Maria Zakharova
Moscow responded to Kiev's demand to remove applications from Russian media such as VGTRK, MIA Rossiya Segodnya and NTV from the App Store. This was announced on Saturday, September 12, by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, Interfax reports.
The department explained that they consider the decision of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) a manifestation of a “repressive policy” towards the Russian media. Zakharova also called on Apple “not to take action that could actually turn the American IT corporation into an accomplice in Kiev's crimes against freedom of speech.”
According to Zakharova, journalists in Ukraine work in restrictions, their lives and health are constantly threatened. They have a hard time because of the “dictatorship of the security agencies in the field of information, language policy and the application of media legislation”, as well as because of the “ban on objective reporting.”
Moscow hopes that human rights organizations will respond to Kiev's violation of “fundamental democratic principles of the free flow of information,” Zakharova said.
Earlier it became known that NTV and VGTRK received a notification from Apple, which says about the removal of applications from the App Store at the request of the SBU in Ukraine.
