International Herald Tribune
In Moscow, protest over state's grip on media
Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press
MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006
MOSCOW More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied in Moscow on Sunday to protest government efforts to tighten controls over national media.

The protest in central Moscow was linked to the fifth anniversary of the takeover of the NTV television station by the state-controlled company Gazprom in what was widely viewed as a Kremlin-orchestrated move to stifle criticism of the government.

Several prominent television anchors, who lost their jobs amid the authorities' efforts to tighten control over programming, took part in the rally.

"Over the last five years, it became clear that the government only started with NTV and ended up dominating the entire information sector," said Viktor Shenderovich, a prominent NTV program host who was purged from the station by its new owners.

Protesters held posters saying, "Censorship Today, Dictatorship Tomorrow," "Channel One, stop lying!" and "Take TV remote control away from Putin."

Since President Vladimir Putin's first election in 2000, all nationwide networks have come under tight state control, resulting in blanket positive coverage of government activities and the disappearance of critical reporting.

While print media enjoy considerably more freedom compared with broadcasters, top national newspapers are also under pressure of owners who fear that critical reports could jeopardize their business interests.

"I have had enough of the lies on television," said Vera Valkovskaia, a housewife. "The government thinks it is king and we are its slaves."

Shenderovich said that Russia had changed a lot since the natural gas giant Gazprom, in which the Russian government is the main shareholder, bought NTV in 2001. He said the state's stranglehold on television was preventing the emergence of a strong opposition and an independent justice system.

"I hope that the Russian flag will once again symbolize a democratic country and not a KGB colonel," he said, referring to Putin's previous job.

Olga Romanova, a former presenter at Ren-TV who was fired in November after complaining about censorship, said TV news channels had become government mouthpieces.

"We worked hard so that Russians would understand what was happening," she said. "Today there is no more objective information on television."

The purchase of NTV by Gazprom was followed by the departure of many of its leading journalists and a dramatic muting of its famously critical coverage, particularly of the war in Chechnya.

Gazprom in June bought Izvestiya, one of the country's most respected newspapers, pushing the state's control of the media into the print press.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/16/news/moscow.php