Gatilov said the permanent mission sent a note to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The document asked him to evaluate “to what extent Washington’s sanctions against Russian media and journalists comply with the United States’ international human rights obligations.” The official was also called to respond publicly to US actions.
“The serious situation in this area deserves the attention and intervention of international human rights mechanisms,” confides Gatilov.
In response, only “another bureaucratic response” was received from Turk’s office, which simply confirmed receipt of the note. “This is the entire reaction of the High Commissioner and his department, called to protect human rights and freedoms,” Gatilov said. “There is no need to talk about the impartiality or objectivity of the UN’s top human rights activist.”
In early September, the US government added the Rossiya Segodnya media group to the sanctions list, as well as RIA Novosti, Sputnik, the RT channel and the Ruptly video agency. US authorities also imposed sanctions on editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and other senior managers at RT.
