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Russian Media Censorship Goes Transnational

France gets an assist.

4:33 PM, Feb 5, 2010 • By JOHN NOONAN
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As if the French offering to sell Russia an amphibious assault ship wasn't bad news for Georgia, Eli Lake at The Washington Times reports that:



The Republic of Georgia is charging a Paris-based satellite provider with caving in to Russian pressure after the company blocked a Georgia-based Russian-language station from broadcasting into the Caucasus region.


"After eliminating most of the Russian-language independent media inside its borders, Russia's attempt to silence the first Caucasian channel in collaboration with the state-owned French firm represents an alarming precedent of international political censorship," Georgia's ambassador to Washington, Batu Kutelia, said in an interview with The Washington Times.


The French infamously negotiated a cease-fire agreement during the Russo-Georgian war of 2008 which was promptly ignored by Moscow. Then they stepped up talks to sell a Mistral-class amphibious assault ship to the Russian navy, a vessel that would be of tremendous assistance should Putin decide to invade Georgia...again. Now they're rubbing salt in a gaping wound that is French-Georgian relations by censoring Tblisi's TV? If there were ever a strike three...

More by John Noonan

Article TAGS:

France, Georgia, John Noonan, Russia, Russo-Georgian War, TV

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