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Title of this article

Should it be "Media freedom in Russia", "Freedom of expression in Russia", or "Censorship in Russia"? Biophys 21:57, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

I propose to create both three articles and fill them with equal stuff, to make editors' life impossible. ellol 10:38, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

TV directors in Kremlin

Approx. english translation of conversation thread at Livejournal account of Russian journalist Oleg Kashin (LJ user "another_kashin"):

user:

Yevgeniya Albats claims that directors of TV companies and newspapers are every thursday invited to Kremlin at meetings with Vladislav Surkov, where they are told which news where to present. Strictly, "Today the directors of the television channels and the newspapers are invited every Thursday into the Kremlin office of the deputy head of administration, Vladislav Surkov to learn what news should be presented, and where."

Would you comment on this?

user: another_kashin

As far as I know, such meetings are no longer with Surkov; also two years ago they were cancelled by incentive of Kremlin, and soon restored by incentive of directors of TV companies.

Western media (and Albats especially) don't understand nothing at all about Russia.

user:

And may be, you would take into it and write, what do directors of TV discuss inside Kremlin walls? The theme for journalist investigation is great, topical and uncovered. Perhaps, dangerous too. But we have, the hell, democracy! and you are representative of fourth branch of power. We would be proud of you! :)

user: another_kashin

Perhaps it's really a great and uncovered thema, but as soon as number of participants of such meetings hardly exceeds five, and moreover, hardly any of them has inclinations to spread contents of the conversations beyond bounds of that office (and it's since that he works, that he doesn't has such inclinations), so perhaps it's even impossible to learn that for sure.

But it's very simple to guess, what happens there and what's the sense of such meetings. Two leading channels of the country derectly belong to the state, the third belongs to the state company "Gazprom". Has the leading stockholder the right to carry consultations with heads of its companies? Undoubtedly has. Has it the right to get involved in editorial policy? The law sais nothing about it, and the shareholder, obviously, gets involved -- it's brilliantly seen from contents of broadcasts, by the way, which I believe is rarely taken seriously by anybody in Russia, TV is industry of entertainment and ratings are quite convicting to witness that.

Then, may such meetings and on the whole interference in editorial policy be considered violence upon good will of managers of TV companies? I guess, no. In exchange for that interference, TV companies obtain, at first, perceptible preferences towards access of any information (there are many places, institutions, people, accessible only by state TV companies, and inaccessible for journalists of private newspapers), and what's more important, unlimited opportunity to earn money in spheres, which do no interest the state — movies, show-business, and so on (in these domains state companies became serious players only now, under Putin, and it's because share of responsibility looks approximately so.)

ellol 20:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)