The European Union will look into threats of criminal prosecution against journalists of the Sputnik news agency's Estonian branch, an EU official told Sputnik on Thursday on the condition of anonymity
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th December, 2019) The European Union will look into threats of criminal prosecution against journalists of the Sputnik news agency's Estonian branch, an EU official told Sputnik on Thursday on the condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency said that employees of Sputnik Estonia had received letters from the Baltic country's Police and Border Guard board that warned about possible criminal prosecution unless they stopped working for the news agency by January 1, 2020. The Estonian authorities cited the 2014 EU sanctions as a pretext for possible legal action. Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has already asked Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid to not allow the journalists to be arrested.
"Thanks for your inquiry. Let us look into this and come back to you," the official said when asked if the European Union would comment on the threats and their ties to the sanctions against Russia, especially considering that Rossiya Segodnya, which Sputnik is a part of, has media accreditation to EU institutions.
Russian media in Estonia and its two Baltic neighbors have been frequently targeted by authorities. The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the three nations of a coordinated crackdown on media, which is not in line with the principle of freedom of expression.
