- Dissenting voices to be silenced as liberal Russian TV
channels come under state control Critics claim that restructuring of two
remaining private stations takes media back to Soviet era
-
- Campaigners accused the Kremlin today of killing off
the last vestiges of independent television in Russia, after it emerged
that the two remaining private TV channels would come under state control
next year.
-
- REN TV and St Petersburg's Fifth Channel, which are sometimes
critical of the authorities, have until now been Russia's last semi-independent
private TV stations. Although neither can be described as radical, they
are the only channels on which opposition politicians can air their views,
or where dissenting voices may be heard.
-
- Next year both channels' news bulletins will be restructured,
Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported today. The state-owned, pro-Kremlin
English language television station Russia Today will take over responsibility
for their news broadcasts from 2010, the paper added.
-
- Journalists said they were appalled by the move.
-
- "This means independent TV will be destroyed. It
will disappear," said Oleg Ptashkin, a former correspondent with Russia's
state-run Channel One TV. Ptashkin, who now runs an independent journalists'
union, added: "Russians won't be able to find alternative views to
state propaganda. We are returning to the Soviet regime and Soviet model."
-
- Asked what he thought of Russia Today, founded by the
Kremlin in 2005 to counter the effect of perceived "hostile"
western reporting of Russia, he said: "It's North Korean television.
They have a large budget and massive resources. But it's not really journalism.
It's a third-rate channel which produces Soviet propaganda."
-
- He added: "The message is simple. In Russia everything
is great, we have the best president in the world and it's all super super.
Abroad everything is terrible, they are out to get us, and people are constantly
being killed in hurricanes and disasters. It's classic Soviet television."
-
- The death of Russia's independent TV stations is a familiar
theme to students of Vladimir Putin's rise to power. Soon after becoming
president in 2000, Putin squashed the country's oligarch-owned independent
TV stations, bringing them under the control of government-friendly corporations.
-
- Until now, the Kremlin has not interfered with REN TV
or the Fifth Channel, which are watched by only 10-15% of Russia's population.
But the economic crisis, and fear of a popular uprising, appears to have
persuaded Russia's risk-averse leadership to pull the plug on the last
surviving television platforms for liberal views and discussion.
-
- "Speaking personally, I'm sad. They have a brilliant
team of professionals. They've won several prizes from the academy of Russian
television," Olga Shorina, spokeswoman for the democratic opposition
movement Solidarity, said. The movement's leaders, including the Kremlin
critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov, are banned from appearing
on state television but do occasionally feature on the federal REN
TV.
-
- The election last year of President Dmitry Medvedev has
so far not reversed Russia's slide on media freedom. But it has created
problems for journalists from Channel One, who now have to ensure that
both Medvedev and Putin Russia's prime minister appear equally
on the evening news. "If one gets three minutes, the other gets three
minutes. Everyone is terrified of getting it wrong," a former insider
said.
-
- Russia's three main state TV networks Channel One,
Rossiya and NTV all operate a "stop-list" of politicians
and pundits who cannot appear. Predictably, it includes well-known Kremlin
opponents.
-
- But it also features enemies of Channel One's powerful
general-director, Konstantin Ernst, insiders say.
-
- The heads of all state-owned television channels, meanwhile,
hold weekly meetings with Kremlin ideologues to decide what will appear
on the news and what won't.
-
- The new head of REN TV, Mikhail Kontserev, declined to
comment today . The channel's star anchorwoman Marianna Maksimovskaya,
who hosts a political discussion show, said she was optimistic that the
station would continue to broadcast "real" news.
-
- "I don't know the new director yet. But I'm absolutely
confident that in the short-term nothing will change, neither in our channel's
politics, nor in our news," she told Kommersant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/16/liberal-russian-channels-state-control
-
-
- Comment
- Brother Nathaniel
- 10-17-9
-
- Hi Jeff -
-
- The Rense recent headline, "Russian TV Channels
Come Under State Control" reflects a Russian response to the
ongoing Jewish attack with their consenting white Gentiles on
Putin for dismantling 'democracy' in Russia. Putin
and many Russians have watched and seen how 'democracy' in America has
become a pathetic Zionist-infested and controlled institution of near complete
national control.
-
- According to my sources in Russia, all of these TV stations
were owned by Zionist Jews. Putin does NOT want them running Russia
like they now dominate America through their Zionist media cartel and ruthless
influence of most every other major sphere of social, governmental, financial
and professional influence.
-
- Putin has already BANNED the Hollywood Zionist-created
"Simpsons" which attacks traditional social mores and cultural
wholeness, and "South Park"...another subtle Zionist 'entertainment'
attack on gentile society.
-
- Democracy and freedom are quickly reduced to a joke whenever
Zionists and their money schemes are able to penetrate and destroy the
status quo of their host nations. And Putin is acutely of Zionist agendas.
The world should be grateful for Vladimir Putin's efforts to stand
up to the most virulent malignancy on the planet.
-
- Is American TV FREE? Ha ha ha...ZIONIST JEWS OWN
THE MEDIA AND THEY HATE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Which is why so many must
look to Rense.com and overseas news sources to learn the real news.
-
- Don't believe the Jews own Hollywood, television and
the mass media in America? Here is some clear and cogent writing
about that issue by Jewish Americans. See: "How
The Jews Invented Hollywood" by the brave Jewish American
film critic Neal Gabler. Read also 'How
Jewish Is Hollywood?' by Joel Stein And 'Jews
Run Hollywood...So What?'
|
