Lavrov accuses EU, Arab League of double standards in Syria media coverage
MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - The European Union and the Arab League are applying double standards in the area of freedom of the press with regard to the situation in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We all want greater freedom of the press, but when the EU, the Arab League make authoritative decisions to block the broadcasting of Syrian state and private channels, this probably does not fit very well in the freedom of the press," he said at a briefing in Moscow on Saturday.
"When the propaganda of neo-Nazism is banned by all kinds of UN decisions and the Nuremberg Tribunal is being justified as a manifestation of freedom of the press and when totally different standards are being applied in other situations similar to those in Belgrade, Tripoli and to what is now going on with Syrian media outlets, we believe this is absolutely unacceptable," Lavrov said.
The current EU and Arab League's decisions with regard to the Syrian media remind me of how television centers were bombed in Belgrade and Tripoli, he said.
"We probably must understand what freedom of the press is, how it must be respected not only within the country but also by the international community, and how it is important to provide access to information, no matter what kind of information that is," Lavrov said.
Moscow has evidence that the armed Syrian opposition is trying to use foreign journalists in the struggle against the Syrian government for its own ends, he said.
In particular, British journalist Alex Thomson told about his visit to a Syrian militant camp near the border with Lebanon, Lavrov said. When he was about to leave, the militants suggested that he take the road where, as it turned out later, he was to come under the fire from the Syrian army, he said.
"The journalist thinks it was not a mistake. He was simply set up with the intention to use the expected death for the purpose of anti-Assad propaganda," the Russian foreign minister said.