Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter

Issue 23 Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law November 27, 1995

Signs of the Times

Chernomyrdin Announces Financial Aid Package for Press;
Busy Election Season for Information Disputes Tribunal
    Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has announced that President Yeltsin will, before the end of the year, sign the law “on state support for the mass media and book publishing,” already approved by the Federation Council. The measure envisages perceptible privileges for all mass media organs irrespective of the type of ownership.
    Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Ignatenko said that it was planned to exempt mass media organs from the value added tax on their products, from the tax on profits received from the production of goods connected with education, science and culture, from export and import duties on paper, equipment and products and from the mandatory sale of currency revenues. The rent for the premises, where mass media organs are located, will be collected according to the tariff rates, which are in effect for cultural institutions. Buildings, where state-owned mass media organs are located, will be turned over to them for future management. Fifty percent of shares of state-owned mass media organs, which are to be transformed into joint-stock companies, will be turned over to their labor collectives.

President’s Judicial Chamber Gets Election Disputes

    The start of election campaigning on state-run television has led to a tide of complaints being sent to the Court of Appeal for Information Disputes, according to ITAR-TASS correspondent Tamara Ivanova.
    On the very first day, the court had to rule on three campaign slots. The “ditties” poking fun at Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin run by the Economic Freedom Party are, according to Anatolij Vengerov, the tribunal’s chair, “in breach of the Civil Code, which prohibits the distortion or use of a person’ s name by means or in a form that could defame or belittle.”
    Vengerov stressed that this was the sole case in which the court confined itself to merely issuing a decision. All the election campaign breaches that followed will result in action being taken as required by law. This includes an application to the court, which, he suggested, is empowered to strip the “transgressor” of its registration and “show it the red card” . The court of referral is obliged by law to examine such applications within three days, or immediately if there are only three days left until the elections.
    Anatoliy Vengerov described another advertising spot, made by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), as “shameless and cynical.” He condemned the use for campaign purposes of images of Peter the Great, Field Marshal Kutuzov hero of the Napoleonic Wars and Academician Sakharov. The latter, for example, is shown in an ad reading the Zhirinovskiy Pravda’and shouting, “Go on, Vladimir Volfovich, get your own back on those thieving democrats!” Only the fact that this spot was not broadcast saved the LDPR from having action taken against it, according to the Chairman.
    Asked about the court’s “special functions” during the election campaign, Anatoliy Vengerov said they “have nothing to do with censorship.” The Chamber for Information Disputes takes no “punitive measures” by itself. In the event of improper conduct of an election campaign, however, the court can turn to the Central Electoral Commission, which is empowered to act.

Chernomyrdin Underscores Role of Media

    Premier Chernomyrdin, at a meeting with the heads of Russian mass media on November 16, said that: “No one must be permitted to delay these elections. We will hold the elections and the people will understand.”
    Chernomyrdin urged the heads of the mass media not to give in to pressure which, in his opinion, “will come from all sides.” “We should not drag the country through the elections on emotions. Everything must be done so as not to shake the country up.” Chernomyrdin called on the heads of the mass media not to allow “offensive Duma candidates” on to the screens, and expressed the view that many of them are “simply sick.”
    “Don’t let fools lead you by the nose,” he stressed.

NTV’s Search for a Full Channel

    According to Ekho Moskvy, on 11 November, “rumors that NTV independent Moscow TV station intends to leave channel four and broadcast via satellite on a former military frequency have nothing to do with reality,” quoting Igor Malashenko, NTV’s director-general.
    Malashenko told the radio station that despite the refusal of the president of the Russian Federation to give NTV the airtime of Russian Universities TV educational TV service which shares channel four with NTV, NTV’s management does not intend to let the issue of the fourth channel drop: “Our plan is that channel four should be an around-the-clock information and entertainment channel.”
    Malashenko said that the NTV management had not yet received a final letter from RTR All-Russian State TV and Radio Company, VGTRK President Oleg Poptsov giving reasons for the president’s decision . (According to a Komsomololskaya Pravda’ report on 11 November 1995, in a letter to the NTV management, Poptsov said that the president had refused because “Russia cannot do without a television service whose priorities are science and education, culture and art, morality and religion” and that “Russian Universities TV is practically the only organization able to make such programs.” (See also the interview with Oleg Poptsov in this issue).
    Malashenko said that “judging by what Poptsov said, he has never seen Russian Universities TV because the channel’s content has nothing to do with what is sensible, good and enduring. It is an absolutely wretched heap of programs put together without any professionalism.” Moreover, in Malashenko’s opinion, Russian Universities TV is following the path of Ostankino in miniature: Airtime is being sold off there, and much of the broadcasting is in the hands of commercial broadcasters who concluded contracts with VGTRK.
    Malashenko says that “Mr Poptsov is behaving like a dog in a manger. The use of the fourth channel by Russian Universities TV cannot be put in an any other way.”

Blagovolin Fails to Control ORT’s Political Formats

    As an alternative to traditional forms of political campaigning on television, Russian Public TV (ORT) proposed, in early November, that the channel’s electoral broadcasts should be in the form of debates and round-table discussions. The channel’s director felt that such a format would benefit both the broadcaster and the viewer. The following is the text of a report by the Russian newspaper:
    On 14 November, the management of Russian Public TV ORT issued a statement which said it was when the election campaign, via the channels of state television and radio, began, November 15, its attempt at innovation would be immediately abandoned.
    According to the statement “ORT had, of course, proposed a formula of debates and round-table discussions to cover this campaign, as this would allow voters to get the fullest and most objective idea of the views of the electoral associations and blocs taking part in the elections.
    “Unfortunately, however, the majority of the electoral associations and blocs have turned down this form of campaigning on television. Consequently, from tomorrow, you will see traditional election broadcasts. If, during the campaign, those taking part express the desire to hold television debates or round-table discussions, then we will certainly leave that option open.”
    In an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 11 November, Sergei Blagovolin, director-general of ORT Russian Public Television, said that “they have accused us of all kinds of things, but no one has ever accused us of stupidity.”
    Until policy later shifted, Blagovolin maintained that ORT was trying somehow to meet the TV viewer halfway, and vary the presentation of the torrent of political declarations, slogans and programs that will come at us from the TV screen in the coming pre-election month.
    The newspaper article stated that “the ORT head’s idea was simple and, designed to make good television. Of all the various methods of pre-election television coverage, they wished to restrict blocs and parties to nothing but TV debates and round-table discussions.”
    The opponents of ORT’s abandoned debate idea argued that it was devised in support of the Russia Is Our Home NDR movement.

Ukraine Allegedly Harasses Russian Journalists

    Correspondents of ORT, Russian Public Television, have been banned from transmitting their reports to the company via radio, on the orders of the Ukrainian Ministry of Communications. ITAR- TASS reported that “The ministry decided to do this because ORT owes them money for its services.”
    This is not the first time the work of Russian television journalists has been disrupted in Ukraine, said ITAR- TASS. The channel arrangement was changed in August and, as a result, ORT’s broadcasts in many areas of Ukraine were moved to channels which many television sets receive poorly. ORT programs were diluted with programs from local television studios. Thus, ORT’s airtime in Ukraine was more than halved.
    At present, according to ITAR-TASS, not one of the six correspondents in Dneprpetrovsk, Odessa, Kharkov, Crimea, Lvov and even Kiev can send reports along radio relay lines. They have to make use of other opportunities; sending reports by air or by rail.
    “The Ukrainian Ministry of Communications has set us back 10 years with this arbitrary decision,” said Gennadiy Klimov, ORT’s bureau chief in southeastern Ukraine.

Izvestiya Chronicles Lukashenka’s Belarus Censorship

    According to a report in Izvestiya’, November 3, October marked another large-scale offensive against the press. Here is the text of the report:
    “President Alyaksandr Lukashenka himself signalled the attack. He said that the mass media had not responded to his call for objective coverage of the situation in the republic. The “president is still being clobbered both by the right and the left,” he said.
    “Only 17 issues of the new Narodnaya Volya’ newspaper have seen the light of day... The latest issue has not been published since the Belorusskiy Dom Pechati publishing house under the president’s control terminated its contract with Narodnaya Volya’. On the same day the Gomel printing house said that it would no longer provide printing services for the newspaper Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta’ and the weekly Imya’. Repairs that printing officials warned would take a long time provided a formal excuse for that move.
    “Then Vladimir Zametalin, the deputy head of the presidential administration, sent a cable to regional executive committee chairmen notifying them that henceforth all printing houses would have the right to conclude contracts with independent newspapers provided they have his department’s consent. Since then Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta’ and Imya’ have been published in Vilnius Lithuania.
    “Seeing that these steps failed to produce the desired effect, the authorities made another move. On virtually the same day, the state associations Minskaya Pochta and the Soyuzpechat periodical distribution agency unilaterally cancelled their contracts with independent newspapers.
    “Nevertheless journalists are not about to give up. Your Izvestiya’ correspondent was told by Petr Martsev, the publisher of Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta’ and Imya’, that the newspapers would continue to be published. But because of the current situation, there may be a delay in delivering them to subscribers but it will not last long. . . .”

Moscow Radio Station Closed Down for Missing Papers

    The Russian Radio Russkoye Radio program broadcast in Moscow on FM 105.7 MHz suspended its broadcasting activity November 21. Russian Radio Director Stepan Stroyev told Interfax that 15 people, four of them armed with automatic weapons, had come to the radio station’s building at 16 Kazakova Street today at around mid-day. The group’s leader demanded that all documents permitting the use of the radio transmitter be shown. “All documents confirming the legality of the radio station’s performance are in order, but the radio station’s employees could not show them then. As a result, the radio transmitter was seized from Russian Radio,” Stroyev said.
    Director of the Russian Radio special projects division, Aleksandr Bunin, told Interfax that the police maintained that all registration documents should permanently stay in the radio station’s office and be accessible if necessary. He said Russian Radio employees could not have shown the documents because they did not have access to them. “The policemen accompanied their actions with threats to the radio station’s employees,” Bunin said. Bunin described the event as “political provocation” following the radio station’s refusal to give airtime to a nationalist organization. Bunin said representatives of this organization had threatened Russian Radio, saying the police might take measures against the radio station because they had good connections there.
    A Russian Interior Ministry representative said with regard to the incident that Russian Radio had admitted “several violations,” as a result of which its broadcasting was suspended. The Interior Ministry said the registration certificate had been given to the Radio-Express firm and not to Russian Radio, which breached the law on the media. Furthermore, the founders of Russian Radio have no licence for import of the Italian equipment which they use. This equipment has not been certified for Russian Radio by the Ministry of Communications, the same source said.
    However, Bunin said Russian Radio had bought the equipment together with two other radio stations which continue their performance as received.
    The Interior Ministry official said Russian Radio could resume broadcasting after it showed all necessary documents.
    Russian Radio Director-General Vladimir Maslov requested the Basmannaya District Prosecutor’s Office, Moscow, to take measures for returning the equipment and resuming the broadcasting of Russian Radio.

French Broadcasting Authority Suggests Ethical Standards

    The chairman of the French Higher Broadcasting Authority (CSA), Herve Bourges met the managing directors and editors of TV and radio stations and called on both public and private broadcasters to consider the rapid introduction of internal codes of ethics.He suggested six fundamental principles “guaranteeing the integrity of audiovisual news programs:”
    — caution in the way news is presented;
    — non-disclosure of news likely to prejudice an investigation;
    — protection of victims and witnesses;
    — non-resort to dramatization;
    — respect for the proper relative significance of news items, according to their importance;
    — proper command of the treatment of news.
    He contended that a broad consensus among the press was apparently effective as the latest terrorist attacks were reported more cautiously by the newsrooms of the various audiovisual services. He stated that the basic texts concerning the ethics of communication already exist.
    The principles are outlined in the amended 30th September 1986 law: respect for the dignity of people, for the freedom of others, for pluralism, for law and order (article 1); protection of children and teenagers (article 15).
    Bourges suggested that, in consultation with operators, the council would define a certain number of basic rules whose origin can be found in existing laws and decrees, and sometimes, in their interpretation by the council.

Polish Broadcasting Council Considers Licenses

    Members of the National Radio and TV Council (KRRiTV) in Lodz on November 14 interviewed eight applicants from the Lodz region seeking licences to run regional radio and local television stations, according to the Polish News Agency, PAP.
    Most questions were addressed to the Biogram company in which the national commission of the Solidarity trade union and the Solidarity regional chapter in Lodz have 30 per cent share each. The company plans to establish a supraregional citizens’ radio, Odnowa (Renewal), to cover 13 provinces.
    Speaking on behalf of Biogram, Radio Free Europe journalist Konrad Tatarowski assured the council that the new radio station would not have a propaganda character. The new radio, he contended, would be similar to the BBC and present above all information addressed to “experienced listeners” between 30 and 50 years of age, he said. “We want to create an opinion-forming radio station shaping civic attitudes,” Tatarowski explained, and said the company intends to broadcast regional programs.
    KRRiTV members examined seven applications for licences to run radio and TV stations in the Gorzow Wielkopolski, Jelenia Gora and Zielona Gora provinces including an application by the Zielona Gora-Gorzow diocese to extend the licence of Radio Gorzow, now being established, to cover the entire territory of the diocese.

More Reports of Radio Transmission Curtailment

    The Chita Power Corporation in the Trans-Baykal area of Siberia cut electricity supplies to the main radio transmitters in the Baykal region, according to a report by Radio Russia on November 21.
    The station reported that for almost a week, the 1.5m people of Chita Region had been unable to receive Radio Russia, Mayak and Chita Regional Radio. The reason was the usual one: non-payment of debts.
    According to the report, the communications workers owed the power workers approximately 4bn roubles, and the TV and radio companies, both federal and local, owed the communications workers 2bn roubles.
    The Radio Russia correspondent said: “All this proves once again that the state tariffs for radio broadcasting do not permit the communications workers to pay for the electricity they use, let alone fund staff pay.”
    The correspondent added: “The situation which has developed in the Trans-Baykal area is now close to scandalous. Indeed, on the eve of the elections, the majority of candidates for deputy positions cannot communicate to their electors the main points of their manifestos, which is causing much discontent on both sides.”

Turkish TV Companies Suspended Briefly for Defamation

    According to a November 17 report by the television station TRT, Turkey’s Radio and Television High Council has imposed penalties on the Interstar and Kanal 6 private television companies. The council decided to suspend the broadcasts of Interstar for three days—November 27, 28 and 29 November; and the broadcasts of Kanal 6 for one day—30 November.
    In a statement, the Radio and Television High Council gave as its reason the fact that Interstar did not broadcast the corrected versions of the responses of the Ciller family of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, the Turkish Telecommunication Industry Corporation and the Capitol Market Council as required by judicial decisions. Regarding Kanal 6, the statement noted that the reasons for imposing the penalty were claims made in the “Objective” program, broadcast on 7th November, that there were homosexual deputies and ministers in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Albanian Draft Broadcasting Law Criticized

    Musa Ulqini, a member of the Parliamentary Commission for Culture and the Media in Albania, has recently written an article in the Albanian newspaper Zeri i Popullit’ in which he criticizes a draft law on the transformation of the existing state radio and television network. Excerpts from the November 4 article follows:
    Ever since the Democratic Party PD came to power, the RTV management—in gross breach of existing law—has flagrantly violated Article 5 of the “RTV Status” act guaranteeing the independence and absence of politicization of this institution. The information embargo on, and the disparaging attacks against, the opposition by the TV’s information department and the national radio have been particularly hostile.
    The opposition has reacted strongly against this, both in Albania and abroad. This protest is legitimate because Albania has only one radio and television network. As the opposition protest had the support of the most prestigious democratic institutions in Europe and the United States, the PD leadership gave the green light to the drafting of a bill on the private electronic media and the transformation of the existing network into a public network.
    The draft that has been prepared is a step backward. The radio and television network passes from subordination to the legislature to subordination to the president. Why do I say this? The national network committee, made up of seven members, is appointed by the legislature in accordance with the respective size of the political forces. The director-general is elected by the legislature, but the deputies have to choose between two candidates proposed by the president. The deputy director-general is proposed by the director-general, who is himself proposed by the president.
    While everybody was waiting for a law that would bring radio and television under public control, it is in fact being put under the direct control of the president. In this way, President Berisha wants to preserve his monopoly. This act shows that the president has started to think seriously about the defeat of his party in the coming elections.
    The abovementioned legal change is directed towards the defeat of the PD and Berisha in the coming elections. For the sake of truth, it must be said that several political moves by Berisha show that the PD will surely lose the coming elections. Although he tries to look optimistic in the eyes of the public about a victory of his party in the elections, his acts, such as the draft project for the radio and television network, prove that he is more convinced than everybody that he will lose.

Dispute over Duna TV Relays in Romania

    November saw confusion over whether Romanian authorities were banning the relaying of Hungary’s Duna TV satellite service over cable services in Romania. Hungarian Radio had reported on November 6 that cable TV subscribers in Timisoara had been unable to watch Duna TV since August as the Romanian authorities had banned rebroadcasts.
    Ferenc Baranyi, the deputy from Timis county, had put a Parliamentary question on October 30 as to why the National Audiovisual Council had rejected licence applications from cable TV companies in a number of Transylvanian towns to relay Duna TV.
    According to a report, the chairman of the National Audiovisual Council responded to the question in writing and justified the decision by stating that the council had received numerous reports claiming that a number of Duna TV programs included items which increased inter-ethnic suspicion and contributed to the creation of artificial tensions.
    The publication said that the council had decided to suspend provisionally the granting of licences for certain cable television companies to rebroadcast Duna TV, while the programs were being monitored and assessed.
    A spokesman said “I assure you that the president did not know about the decision of the CNA, and so it was impossible for him to take any measures,” mentioning that, in fact, the head of the state did not have the means, even if he wanted, to get involved in any way in this matter.
    A later report by Hungarian Radio claimed that following the intervention of the UDMR Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, the Romanian National Audiovisual Council has revised its earlier decision to suspend the rebroadcasting of Duna TV by Romanian cable television companies.

Material for this month’s “Signs of the Times” was adapted, in large part, from the excellent BBC service, “Summary of World Broadcasts” and their “World Broadcasting Information” monitoring program.