The “freedom of speech” the US trumpets applies only to those who support official narratives and obey instructions from its intelligence services, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said, following the latest crackdown by Washington on Russian media.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against the news outlet on Friday, accusing it of engaging in “covert influence activities” and “functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence.” Earlier in September, Washington imposed sanctions on Simonyan and three other senior RT employees over alleged attempts to influence the 2024 US presidential election.
Simonyan asserted that the latest attack on Russian media is a clear effort to clamp down on the information space ahead of the November vote.
“They need to silence everyone. This is the story of freedom and democracy in the so-called free West. It seems to me that only clinically insane people or those who are obviously biased can believe in it,” she stated. In practice, the US idea of a free press doesn’t extend to others, she added.
It's very easy to promote freedom of speech and practice it when it's only your speech that counts and no one else's.
Simonyan argued that Washington's claims about RT collaborating with Russian intelligence are a “classic case of projection.”
“The idea that you can't achieve results without being part of the intelligence service has exposed them for what they are,” she said.
She noted that the way US mainstream media publishes various intelligence “leaks” and insider information from unnamed security officials points to their close ties with American intelligence services.
“If you look at who runs these foundations and often the media, they're either families of intelligence employees, former intelligence officers, or future ones,” she added.
They receive orders from intelligence services: write this, write that. They have long since merged with each other.