The Russian Embassy in Manila took a jab at the comment made by British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils when she called on the local media not to allow misinformation regarding the Russian aggression against Ukraine "to pollute our minds." In a statement, the embassy said it would like to "remind" Beaufils that "the core purpose of existence of independent media is to provide their open-minded readers  with different points of view on current events." The purpose of the media is also to allow readers to "compare, analyze information and decide for themselves what is true and what is false," it added. The embassy's remark came after Beaufils, in an interview with CNN Philippines on Wednesday last week, said the media "have a responsibility not to publish untruths" as a Philippine-based broadsheet published an opinion article written by Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov that justified Moscow's actions. British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils (Photo courtesy of British Embassy in Manila)

In his piece in February, Pavlov claimed it was the 2014 anti-constitutional armed coup d'état "orchestrated by the West" that took place in Kiev as well as their "Russophobia" that started the Russia-Ukraine war. The Russian embassy said it is "watching attempts by Western diplomats to dictate the editorial policy to the Philippine newspapers to avoid 'inconvenient truth.'" It claimed that what they were doing, particularly Beaufils, was "in the spirit of traditional British colonial mentality with the arrogant and cynical attitude towards developing nations." "The situation serves another vivid example of what the statements by our European colleagues about protecting freedom of speech are worth," it said. "It was also clearly illustrated by the US authorities who refused to issue visas to Russian journalists meant to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov set to chair several UN Security Council meetings in New York last April," it added.