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The Russian government, through its embassy in Spain and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has launched a smear campaign against ABC and its correspondent in Moscow for refusing to publish a 3,100-word government communication that they intend to pass off as a journalistic interview. The refusal of this newspaper to accept the demands of the Moscow regime and much less to publish as an interview what is nothing but a propaganda article sent in writing to our correspondent is behind a campaign of pressure, threats and defamation so that ABC would publish the aforementioned article on its pages, which in no way resembles a Interview carried out under the standards of any quality international media and which is what ABC had requested from the beginning through official channels with the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, María Zajárova.
The events unfolded as follows. On March 7, the International section of ABC requested an interview with María Zajárova through Dmitry Bolbot, Secretary of Communication of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Spain. More than a month later, on April 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry (MID), instead of addressing the person in charge of the newspaper’s section, wrote an email to the newspaper’s correspondent in Moscow to ask him a series of questions with which guide, verbatim, an “opinion article” by Zajárova that, according to the Ministry, had been agreed with this medium. The correspondent sends the questions. But the Madrid newsroom had neither requested any article nor was it in their spirit to publish it.
On April 21, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed the correspondent that it would send the answers the following day without specifying anything else. The journalist contacts the newsroom in Madrid, to which he informs that he is waiting to receive an article that, according to representatives of the MID, has been requested by ABC. The person in charge of the International section of the newspaper clarifies to the correspondent that no article has been requested from the Russian spokeswoman, but an obviously face-to-face interview and, therefore, with the ability to ask, cross-examine and collect live responses from María Zajárova.
The very long document, which had not been requested from the MID or the Embassy in Madrid, finally arrived on April 29. The article that the Russian authorities intend to present and that we accept as an interview does not meet the standards to be qualified as such, even more so when, from the official channels of the Russian regime, what our correspondent was asked to do was to send them ideas that could be of interest in Spain for the preparation of an article to be signed by the spokesperson for the Ministry, something that, we insist, was never requested.
Transferred the text to the newspaper’s address and after being informed of such non-transparent and confusing procedures, ABC decided not to publish something that is within the scope of propaganda and not information.
‼️ @abc_es requested an interview with the spokesperson for the @mae_russia, Maria Zajarova. The part 🇷🇺 she responded positively.
However, after receiving responses from our spokesperson, said 📰 refused to post them.
It is an example of blatant censorship!
👀 https://t.co/yZJgHYHndNpic.twitter.com/q9thGjZmXL
— Russia in Spain (@EmbajadaRusaES) May 4, 2022
A very long text of 3,100 words from which you could not touch a comma, contextualize, ask to clarify certain issues or cross-examine others. In short, a self-interview that the Russian Government does to itself and that it intends to be published by ABC. This newspaper, despite the attacks received by the Russian Foreign Ministry, accusations of flagrant censorship, maintains its offer to Zajárova to proceed with an interview within the natural informative codesnot under pressure.
Click here to read the original document sent to ABC
Click here to read its translation
For your full transparency, ABC publishes the original document from the Russian Government and the translation into Spanishso that the propagandistic nature of the submitted text can be compared and how far it is from being able to be considered an interview according to the canons of any media outlet that exercises journalism in freedom.
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism