(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 30 April 2001 letter to President Vladimir Putin, CPJ expressed its deep concern over the Gazprom-Media takeover of news outlets previously owned by the Media-Most company. Gazprom-Media is a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-run gas monopoly. After almost a year of official harassment, threats and pursuit through the courts, Gazprom-Media staged […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 30 April 2001 letter to President Vladimir Putin, CPJ expressed its deep concern over the Gazprom-Media takeover of news outlets previously owned by the Media-Most company. Gazprom-Media is a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-run gas monopoly.
After almost a year of official harassment, threats and pursuit through the courts, Gazprom-Media staged a boardroom coup on 3 April that gave it formal control of NTV, Russia’s only independent national television station. On 14 April, the new Gazprom management team forcibly occupied NTV. Two days later Gazprom ousted the staff of the daily “Segodnya”, and on 17 April dismissed the editor of the weekly magazine “Itogi”. Both publications were owned by Media-Most and, like NTV, were among those few media outlets that regularly voiced criticism of government policies, particularly in their coverage of the Chechnya conflict.
Gazprom was the main creditor of Media-Most, and called in its debt last year. Repayment was not forthcoming, and police and tax officials subjected the company to more than two dozen raids and inspections. The company’s owner, Vladimir Gusinsky, fled Russia after being charged with fraud on 13 November 2000.
Officials including Gazprom-Media’s general director Alfred Kokh, who visited CPJ’s New York offices on 16 March, insist that the dispute between Media-Most and Gazprom is purely financial. However, the heavy-handedness of the April actions leaves the very strong impression that there are political motives behind Gazprom’s takeovers. Moreover, financial concerns cannot account for the dismissal of the editor of “Itogi”, which was both profitable and highly respected. Since the Gazprom-Media takeover, Newsweek, which had jointly published “Itogi”, has suspended cooperation with the magazine.
In the view of CPJ and many Russian journalists and independent analysts, the takeovers of NTV, “Itogi”, and “Segodnya” are not a result of a financial dispute but rather represent part of a concerted effort to silence media that are critical of the current government’s policies. CPJ is concerned by the aggressive tactics consistently used by tax police against Media-Most outlets, including the most recent tax police move on 16 April against the chief accountant of the Gusinsky-controlled TNT cable station, which sheltered some of the NTV programs right after the Gazprom takeover.
As a result of these takeovers and pressures, the government’s primary critics in the media are now silenced or sidelined.
The Russian government already controls the two remaining national television broadcasters, ORT and RTR, and exerts enormous influence over hundreds of newspapers through a system of subsidies. For a healthy democracy to flourish in Russia, it is vital that its citizens have access to a variety of sources of news and information. CPJ is dismayed that the takeover of NTV and “Itogi” and the closure of “Segodnya” significantly narrow that range of options.
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