Russian Civic Chamber proposes to set up BRICS press freedom body

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation proposes to create a new organization within the BRICS framework to protect journalists' rights, the chamber's First Vice Chair of the Board of Directors Elena Sutormina said Wednesday.

"We have asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to add the issue of protecting journalists' rights and freedom of press in certain regions, like Ukraine and the Baltic countries, to the agenda of the nearest [BRICS] summit on October 15-16," Sutormina said at the press conference.

Sutormina cited a few examples of Russian journalists being harshly treated in Ukraine and the Baltic states and mentioned a recent incident in Kosovo, where a Russian journalist was deported from the country.

Sutormina added that she had repeatedly brought this to the attention of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights and his Council of Europe counterpart, but received non-commital replies.

BRICS is an association of five developing economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), which comprise over one third of the world’s population.

First published by Sputnik.

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