The Russian Public Press Complaints Council has ruled that Associated Press (AP) has violated principles of journalistic ethics by releasing a story on Russian municipal elections, in which Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Ella Pamfilova's words have been misrepresented
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2019) The Russian Public Press Complaints Council has ruled that Associated Press (AP) has violated principles of journalistic ethics by releasing a story on Russian municipal elections, in which Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Ella Pamfilova's words have been misrepresented.
Pamfilova has filed a complaint with the council over AP's story, released on August 29 and based chiefly on an interview with her. After the story was released, CEC head claimed that there were inaccuracies and also slammed the news agency for failing to publish the transcript of the conversation. After that, AP issued a clarified version of the story, but Pamfilova was not satisfied with it and still filed a complaint to the media regulation civic society agency.
"The council does not share [AP correspondent and author of the story] Natalia Vasilieva's attitude toward her own material as one fully abiding with professional ethical standards," the council's decision read.
"Although Ella Pamfilova's statements from her interview were really used in the publications, the general sense does not correspond to what she meant," the council added, citing its expert, Svetlana Shaikhitdinova.
According to the expert, this happened due to the fact that Pamfilova's words had been taken out of context, and therefore presented as "political statements by an official representing interests of the Kremlin."
"Dubious publications on the website of AP news agency look biased, which violates the fundamental principle of journalistic ethics, the principle of objectivity," the expert said, as quoted by the Press Complaints Council.
