Greek journalists oppose revocation of accreditation of Sputnik employees

The Association of Foreign Correspondents and the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers have made a request to the Greek government.

They asked not to revoke the accreditation of Sputnik employees and continue to provide them with access to ministries, parliament, the presidential palace, the residence of the Prime Minister of Greece “Megaro Maximufor the exercise of their professional activities. The joint statement, issued on Saturday 5 February, states:

“The Association of Foreign Correspondents and the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers sent a letter to the official representative of the Greek government, Yiannis Ikonom, and a copy to the official representative of the Greek Foreign Ministry, Alexandros Papaioan, in support of their members who work in the Russian media in Greece. The letter states that both journalistic unions express concern about the consequences of the situation in Ukraine and the position of the European Union, which affects the press and freedom of expression, pluralism and polyphony. EU restrictive measures in connection with the actions of Russia, destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, are ultimately aimed at media workers who face sanctions.”

The statement emphasizes, as reported GreekReporter, that journalists will support their colleagues from all media from possible persecution:

“We are talking about employees who, regardless of their nationality, cover events in Greece or the Balkans, based in our country. Russian media correspondents based in Greece and accredited in accordance with all legal rules are our colleagues and members of our associations, many of of them are working in a foreign country for them with all the problems that accompany their work.It is self-evident and necessary for us that one should not target journalists and correspondents working in the Russian media in Greece.Please do not revoke any accreditation from foreign correspondents for based on the media they work in or their nationality as a criterion.We ask that they continue to have unhindered access to reporting venues, as is currently the case, such as parliament, ministries, the presidential palace, etc. We ask for the protection of the members of the Association foreign correspondents and the Journalists’ Union of the Athens dailies t by the government and by you personally within the framework of the constitutionally enshrined institution of information”.

Recall that after recognition of the DNR and LNRand then the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the start of a special operation in Ukraine The US, EU, UK, and a number of other states announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities, and against Belarus. Since March 2, the European Union has banned broadcasting on the territory of the community of the RT channel and the work of the Sputnik agency. The relevant regulations were published on Wednesday in the Official Journal of the EU.

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