BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 22. Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova has reacted to a baseless accusation of an Armenian reporter, who called the blocking of the RIA Novosti news website in Azerbaijan "another violation of the freedom of the press", Trend reports.
Zakharova noted that Russia settles existing and emerging problems with its partners in a bilateral format.
"I always proceed from the fact that issues of mass media and their activities should be resolved in accordance with the law and based on respect for freedom of speech and the rights of reporters, which are enshrined both in the national, and in international law,” she said.
“We hope there will be fewer of such incidents. We would like to develop our relations in the media sphere, based on the general need to counteract fakes and disinformation. We have matters to be solved with all the countries of the world together, based on the above principles," added the official.
Azerbaijan has blocked access to RIA Novosti after the agency published an interview with the so-called "minister" of Armenian separatists Artak Beglaryan.
RIA Novosti has been known to spread information directed against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and promoting slanderous and separatist tendencies from time to time. Spread of such information is a violation of the requirements of the Law 'On information and protection of information', and Azerbaijan has restricted access to RIA Novosti on its territory, on the basis of the relevant Law.
Later, the above interview was deleted from the RIA Novosti web site.
Limiting access to online information resources in case of publishing information, the spread of which is prohibited in Azerbaijan, is regulated by the Law 'On information and protection of information'.
According to the Law, in the event of a threat to the legally protected interests of the state and society, access to the Internet information resource or its corresponding part is limited by the decision of the relevant executive authority.