OREANDA-NEWS. The refusal of the British authorities to accredit the Russian television channel RT and the Sputnik news agency for the Global Press Freedom Conference opening in London on July 10 is absurd and undermines the authority of the event. This opinion was expressed by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, to journalists.

"This can only be a quasi-conference, there can be no serious discussion of press freedom in an environment where journalists are denied access", said Peskov. "This is the most striking manifestation of the absurdity of what is happening", said a spokesman. "And this absurdity, unfortunately, often in some countries, including in the country that accepts this event, acquires a regular protracted nature", said Peskov. “We can only regret in this regard”, he added.

Earlier, the British Foreign Office denied the RT and Sputnik employees accreditation for the conference. According to the foreign policy department, this decision was made because of the role that these media play in the dissemination of misinformation. The Russian Embassy in London expressed its categorical disagreement with this decision to the British Foreign Ministry and called it "a vivid example of hypocrisy and double standards".

A global conference on press freedom will be held in the British capital on July 10-11. It will be led by the heads of the British and Canadian Foreign Ministries - Jeremy Hunt and Christie Freeland. The forum will cover, in particular, such topics as protecting the rights of journalists, preventing impunity of those who have committed crimes against members of the media, and countering false news. According to the expert, at the conference he intends to reach an agreement with his colleagues from other countries "on how to protect media freedom and set a price for those who violate it".