A post on the Canadian government website decrying alleged violations of the rights and freedoms of journalists and the media in Russia was promptly picked up and disseminated by the US State Department. The material is a trivial set of propaganda clichés and does not stand up to basic fact-checking. The quality of the “analysis” manifests itself in Sergey Lavrov being titled in that short text as “Russia's ambassador to the UN.” It is no secret that the political establishment of Canada and the United States live in the past, clinging to the concept of a unipolar world that makes them comfortable. We would like to point out, however, that Mr Lavrov has been Russia’s Foreign Minister since 2004(!). Other statements are not better than the factoid above, so let us now deal with each in detail.

– “Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, almost all independent media have been banned, blocked, and declared “foreign agents” or “undesirable organisations.”

As you will recall, only those media outlets that receive Western funding and serve Western interests are considered “independent” in the West. In this sense, recognising some of these media as foreign agents is nothing more than a statement of fact. However, in Russian, unlike in the US, such media outlets can freely continue to engage in journalism, receive accreditation for events and publish materials, subject to complying with labelling and reporting requirements.

In Russia, only those media outlets that violate Russian legislation are blocked, in each case based on a court’s ruling supported by concrete facts. In the West, including Canada, bans are a purely political measure that these countries shamelessly resort to under the slogan of "fighting Russian propaganda.” This shows a clear disregard for democracy and is a vivid example of neoliberal dictatorship.

– “Russia has increased restrictions on freedom of press and freedom of expression by adopting many laws, including its ‘fake news’ and defamation laws.”

For some reason, Canada is concerned that anti-defamation laws have been adopted in Russia. Apparently, Canadians do not know or have forgotten what this phenomenon is and why it should be countered legally. We are talking about legitimate ways to defend one's honour and dignity, disavow malicious slander and attempts to ruin one's business reputation. In Russia, these issues have been regulated for decades by several regulatory acts: the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Articles 150,152); Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 3 of February 24, 2005 “On Judicial Practice Related to Disputes on the Protection of Honour and Dignity of Citizens, as well as of the Business Reputation of Citizens and Legal Entities”. Russia, contrary to the claims of the Canadian Government, has no specific legislation regarding defamation. This is a manifestly false statement by the Trudeau regime.

At the same time, the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) examined the issue of defamation in the digital age and in March 2020 published the results of its investigation in the report titled "Defamation Law in the Internet Age." There, it recommended adopting a new law, the Defamation Law, leaving significant changes to the discretion of the common law, which is moving faster than legislative reforms. That is, we have once again been accused of what they are doing in the West.

At the same time, Ottawa has no zeal to defend human rights when it comes to arrests of people for wearing the St. George Ribbon and protests against the demolition of monuments to soldiers who liberated Europe and the world from Nazism. There, as usual, they failed to take note of the mass prosecutions landing journalists with real prison terms in the Baltic states. No concern was raised about the Kiev regime’s terrorist killings of public figures and publicists (Daria Dugina, Vladlen Tatarsky), and attempts to kill Zakhar Prilepin. Canada is silent on the issue of the Mirotvorets website which celebrates the Kiev regime murdering people it deems unwanted. For years, official Canada has ignored the inhuman mockery of Julian Assange, who dared to reveal to the world the ins and outs of American democracy.

– “According to Reporters Without Borders, as many as 24 journalists and media workers are currently imprisoned in Russia.”

The NGO, Reporters Without Borders, has long since discredited itself and firmly cemented its reputation as an extremely biased organisation. Take, for example, their recent press freedom rating. It is a real guide to hypocrisy. How can you trust their handiwork if Ukraine’s ranking has risen from 106 to 79 in a year? This is the same Ukraine that has completely eradicated dissent, and will resort to any and all imaginable and unthinkable measures, up to physical violence, to punish journalists who are a source of discomfort to the Kiev regime.

Reporters Without Borders put Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, where media freedom is in a similar state, and where their own citizens are persecuted for their beliefs (Tatyana Andriyets, Marat Kasem, etc.), in the 7th and 8th places, respectively. Here are the nations, it turns out, that everyone should look up to.

When looking at this self-made “chart," it is easy to understand which countries, regardless of any repressions they may commit against the media, will be absolved by these pet Western NGOs just for having sworn allegiance to Washington, and which will be decimated for having an independent foreign policy course and a willingness to defend their national interests. This is why we are not at all surprised that Russia was placed 164th in this "ranking," Turkey is 165th, Iran 177th and China 179th.

We are convinced that by engaging in the compilation of such propaganda fakes that have nothing to do with reality, Reporters without Borders single-handedly destroys the remnants of its own reputation and self-respect, if it ever had any.

– “Thousands of ordinary Russian citizens have been detained, charged or prosecuted for spreading ‘fake news’.”

Speaking about liability the dissemination of fake news, here is another case of abusing concepts that have no clear legal definition. In Russia, we must point out, the term “fake news” has unambitious definitions enshrined in law that makes it possible to establish and prove in court the fact of disseminating false information with the aim of undermining the security of the state and disturbing public order. Such measures in no way contradict the fundamental human rights protection statutes, including those enshrined in Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

All in all, the propaganda efforts of Canadian and American colleagues are depressing because the end result is a tedious lie. The makeshift "accusations" against Russia provoke nothing more than bewilderment and pity. It seems that, when compiling these materials, the authors looked in the mirror and described their own faults that they then “spiced up” with a set of Russophobic clichés that had been spewed out by their own mainstream media. After all, a lot of taxpayers' money goes into such failed revelations about "Russian disinformation." It begs the question of who these fakes are designed for? Judging by the uncensored reaction of internet users and the comments of ordinary people, almost nobody still believes the lies of the Anglo-Saxon press and officials of the State Department or the Canadian Foreign Ministry... People just laugh at them.