Germany rejects Russian allegations of journalist harassment

BERLIN (Reuters) -A German foreign ministry official on Friday rejected "unfounded accusations" made by Russia's foreign ministry that Berlin had persecuted Russian journalists working in the country.

"In contrast to Russia's increasingly harsh repression of journalists, Germany upholds the principles of the rule of law and freedom of the press," the official said in a statement.

Russia summoned the German ambassador earlier on Friday to inform him of retaliatory measures in response to what it sees as the harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

In a statement, the Russian ministry said the German ambassador, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, was informed that "Berlin should not continue the practice of systematic harassment of Russian journalists in Germany."

Such "open unfriendly actions by the German authorities will inevitably be met with a response from the Russian side," the ministry said.

Lambsdorff was quoted by the Izvestia outlet as saying the meeting, which lasted over two hours, was "interesting."

"We discussed the working conditions of our correspondents. We will continue this dialogue."

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, writing by Miranda Murray and Lucy Papachristou, editing by Thomas Seythal, William Maclean)

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