I. VGTRK head believes Duma wants him out.
The chairman of the All-Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting
Company [VGTRK], Nikolay Svanidze, in an interview with ITAR-TASS today
described as “very credible” the rumors that a number of the opposition
factions in the State Duma are taking measures to make him resign. He also
said that he had anticipated such measures on the part of the Duma’s opposition
majority, timed to the beginning of the political season this autumn.
A source in the Russian parliament’s lower house
[the State Duma] told ITAR-TASS today that a number of factions have the
intention of pushing for Svanidze’s resignation. The source says that the
deputies have chosen a new tactical move this time: they are going to initiate
an audit to be carried out in the company by the tax police. In particular,
they are going to insist that the terms on which advertising of the well-known
magician David Copperfield was carried out should be examined in great
detail.
The State Duma’s democratic factions think that
the forthcoming attack on the VGTRK has been caused by the company’s position
because the company maintains its loyalty to the Russian president and
the government of Russia. Svanidze has recalled that the Duma has serious
claims against practically all the Russian television channels. Perhaps
the Duma believes that “it will be easier to sort out the VGTRK” because
the company has the status of a government company.
He did not rule out that the attacks could be caused
by the president’s decree to set up a new all-Russian state television
company, Kultura, within the VGTRK, and also by Boris Yeltsin’s decision
to restore the VGTRK’s status of a unitary state-run enterprise, which
gives the company much greater independence in its economic activity.
Svanidze has made it clear that he is aware of a
great number of commercial and financial structures whose dream is to own
the VGTRK. “ Competition is competition,” he said.
ITAR-TASS news agency, September 9, 1997
II. St Petersburg: reaction to radio and TV changes.
St Petersburg Channel 5 TV presenter, Igor Strakhov,
announced in the Novosti Rossii news program on 30th August that this would
be the last broadcast and that regional news would from now on be reported
from Moscow. The change follows President Boris Yeltsin’s decision to set
up the Kultura channel in place of St Petersburg Channel 5 TV and has caused
a lot of bad feeling.
“Now the main news,” Igor Strakhov said. “You have
just watched the last broadcast of Novosti Rossii. From now on, Moscow
is to have a monopoly on the news. Life in the regions will now be covered
only by Moscow [broadcast] companies. You and I will see whether this is
a good or bad thing. It’s one thing to talk about life in the regions from
the center, and quite another to live in the regions. We are grateful to
our correspondents from all the corners of Russia, without whose help we
would not have been able to do anything. We are grateful to our viewers,
without whose interest there would have been no point in the existence
of Novosti Rossii. With hope for better times, I wish you success and the
very best.”
Over the last month the station has been showing
regular vox pops from the streets of St Petersburg about the decision to
replace St Petersburg Channel 5 TV; everyone has lamented it.
St Petersburg Radio 1 listeners are also upset by
Boris Yeltsin’s decision to restructure radio broadcasts in Russia. The
Inform TV news broadcast on 8th August reported that a plan currently being
examined to switch the popular St Petersburg radio program from the first
channel to the third would mean a cut in scope from 1,320,000 listeners
to 43,000.
St Petersburg Channel 5 TV, August 30, 1997
III. Yeltsin speaks on need for Kultura TV channel.
President Boris Yeltsin gave a speech on the need
to create a cultural TV channel. He said that originally it was thought
that this would be supported by private finance, but it was later decided
that state support was needed. The following are excerpts from the text
of the speech carried by Ekho Moskvy news agency:
Dear Russian citizens,
Today [29th August] I will speak about broadcasting
culture on our television. A few days ago I signed a decree setting up
a new all-Russian television channel to show cultural and educational programs.
It took a long time for the idea to mature. I discussed it many times with
our prominent representatives for culture, education and science. The decision
to set up this channel has not been landed on us from above, as it were.
It has been prompted by demand and people’s wishes.
In Russia we may well be divided by ideological,
social and religious barriers but we have been raised in one culture: among
pictures of Russian artists, Pushkin’s poems, Aleksandrov and Tarkovsky
films and songs of Utesov and Vysotskiy. We have a gravitation towards
spirituality—it is an inherent trait for us and part of our national character.
Whatever the difficulties, people do not live by bread alone. Therefore,
by setting up this television channel, we are simply returning our debt
to Russian culture.
I believe that we will be able to find good professional
people who are able to make culture enjoyable, accessible and understandable
for millions and millions of television viewers.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that the
reorganization of Channel 5 will not encroach on anybody’s interests. Nobody
can dispute St Petersburg’s invaluable contribution to the treasury of
Russian and world culture. St Petersburg journalists will be able to produce
their daily three-hour program on the new channel. Our new minister of
culture understands the enormous possibilities of our northern capital
and will, of course, assist in ensuring that the history, culture and art
of St Petersburg are presented by the new channel as they deserve.
The new channel will be created by highly professional
people—journalists, cameramen, editors. However, weighty representatives
of Russian culture will also have their say. A board of trustees will be
set up to include eminent film-makers, writers, scientists and artistes.
It will help the channel find its feet.
Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, August 28, 1997
IV. New Channel Is Politics, Not Culture, Analysts Say.
By Julia Shargorodska
A presidential decree establishing Channel 5 as a
cultural channel appears to be aimed primarily at centralizing control
over national television in Moscow, analysts said August 26.
St. Petersburg-based Channel 5 becomes the third
national channel, after ORT and RTR, to fall under the legal and administrative
auspices of the federal government.
Under the decree, the St. Petersburg station will
be reorganized as a joint -stock company broadcasting in the city and the
surrounding Leningrad region.
Everybody outside the region who receives Channel
5 now will begin receiving the national channel, renamed Culture, starting
Nov. 1.
The move does not sit well with some at Channel
5, until now the only remaining national broadcaster outside of Moscow.
The director of the financially ailing station, Oleg Rudnov, resigned in
July over what he suggested was an effort by Moscow to take over the channel
for largely political reasons.
Channel 5 deputy director Alexander Kulikov would
not comment on that issue Tuesday. “Before, we could have discussed this.
Now, we are compelled to agree with the decree,” he said.
The decree states that the move is intended to “strengthen
the role of the government in electronic media (radio and television),
the development of a single all-nation information network and the restoration
of cultural and educational functions in state television in the Russian
federation.”
Though the channel will be under VGTRK, the state-owned
television and radio company, VGTRK Chairman Nikolai Svanidze said Culture
will have its own director and will be independent within the state company.
Some analysts question whether that will work in
practice. The new Culture channel “will be subservient to VGTRK,” said
Anna Kachkayeva, a media analyst and a professor at Moscow State University.
“They will have the same politics. They will both be financed by the same
source.”
Some analysts say the channel has a potential viewing
audience of 90 million, making it an attractive property both from a political
and financial standpoint.
Television has become increasingly important in
Russian politics and was regarded as influential in President Boris Yeltsin’s
come-from-behind victory in last year’s presidential elections. Moscow
Mayor Yury Luzhkov, widely regarded as a future presidential hopeful, was
the driving force behind the recently founded TV Center in Moscow.
It remains unclear how the Culture channel will
be funded. Yeltsin’s decree stipulates that it will be financially supported
by VGTRK and the federal government.
But Kachkayeva said the cash-strapped federal government
has already left VGTRK short of funds in some areas. She noted that last
year the government gave control of Channel 4 to NTV private television,
citing a lack of money.
Itar-Tass quoted Svanidze as saying in an interview
that the Culture channel would not air commercials, usually a main source
of income for television stations. He said the Culture channel is not capable
of making a profit, but it will add prestige to VGTRK.
The Moscow Times, August 27, 1997
V. VGTRK head says Kultura decree a “wise” decision.
In a RIA interview Nikolai Svanidze, chairman of
the All-Russian State TV and Radio Company (VGTRK), described the presidential
decree on the setting up of the All-Russian State TV Channel Kultura as
“a very wise and long expected decision” of the Russian president.
According to Svanidze, the Kultura channel is to
become largely a “ channel for intellectuals” . Svanidze intends to actively
attract to work for the channel and for cooperation with it Russia’s creative
intelligentsia for whom, he noted, the setting up of the Kultura channel
will become a “real gift” . Svanidze said that he is as yet unable to mention
any specific name.
Russian news agency RIA, August 26, 1997
VI. Text of decree establishing Kultura TV.
President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin
has signed a decree “ On improving the state TV broadcasting in the Russian
Federation.” Its text follows:
“In order to strengthen the role of the state electronic
mass media, to develop a single comprehensive national information sphere,
and to restore the cultural and educational role of state TV in the Russian
Federation, I resolve that:
1. The government of the Russian Federation, the
All-Russia State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and the Mayor’s
Office of St Petersburg should set up a state mass medium: the All-Russian
State TV Channel Kultura.
2. VGTRK should set up the main editorial office
of the All-Russian State TV Channel Kultura within the company’s overall
structure.
3. The chief editor of the All-Russian State TV
Channel Kultura should be appointed or dismissed by the president of the
Russian Federation.
4. The board of trustees of the All-Russian State
TV Channel Kultura should be formed in order to assist the channel with
fulfilling its functions.
5. The Council for Art and Culture under the President
of the Russian Federation should prepare within a month a draft decree
on the board of trustees of the All-Russian TV channel Kultura and also
submit some proposals on its composition.
6. Broadcasts of the All-Russian TV channel Kultura
should begin on 1st November 1997 on [UHF] channel 33 in Moscow and on
appropriate channels in other cities and Regions of the Russian Federation
(with the exception of St Petersburg and Leningrad Region), which have
been used for transmitting broadcasts of the St Petersburg Channel 5 State
Radio and Television Company.
7. A Russian Federation government proposal, agreed
with the St Petersburg Mayor’s Office and the Leningrad Region administration,
should be adopted on the re-organization of the St Petersburg Channel 5
State Radio and Television Company by way of its being turned into a public
joint-stock company, named the St Petersburg Radio and Television Company.
The Russian Federation government should hand over to the city of St Petersburg
property owned by the state and assigned to the St Petersburg Channel 5
State Radio and Television Company, as the property of the city of St Petersburg
on the condition that the St Petersburg Mayor’s Office incorporates this
property in the authorized capital of the St Petersburg Radio and Television
Company public joint-stock company and it should give the city of St Petersburg
51 per cent of the shares in the joint-stock company.
8. It should be established that the St Petersburg
Radio and Television Company will broadcast television and radio programs
in St Petersburg and in Leningrad Region on frequencies previously allocated
to the St Petersburg Channel 5 State Radio and Television Company.
9. The VGTRK should provide for the transmission
of programs on culture and art by the St Petersburg Radio and Television
Company, lasting no less than three hours a day, on the Kultura TV channel’s
daily broadcasting program.
10. The State Committee of the Russian Federation
on Communications and Information should, jointly with the Russian Federal
Television and Radio Broadcasting Service, ensure that the programs of
the All-Russian State TV Channel Kultura are disseminated in the city of
St Petersburg and in Leningrad Region as well as in other constituent parts
of the Russian Federation which are unable to receive the television channel’s
programs for technical reasons.
11. The VGTRK should ensure that the All-Russian
State TV Channel Kultura is financed from income received by the company
from commercial activities, funds attracted and funds from the federal
budget.
12. The Russian Federation Finance Ministry and
the Russian Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting Service should ensure
that the VGTRK allocates additional funds in 1997, including funds to pay
for the services of communications enterprises for distributing the programs
of the All-Russian State TV Channel Kultura.
13. The Russian Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting
Service should ensure that licences for radio and television broadcasting
are issued and revised, in line with this decree.
14. The Russian Federation government should bring
all of its legislative acts into line with this decree by 1st October 1997.
15. The Russian Federation President’s Main State
Law Directorate should table proposals on amendments to the Russian Federation
president’s acts in connection with this decree coming into force, by 1st
October 1997.
16. This decree comes into force on the day it is
signed. B. Yeltsin”
Russian Government Internet Network, August 25, 1997
I. Journalists’ union protests against draft media law.
The Russian Writers’ Union emphatically objects to
the approval of the federal draft law “On the Supreme Council on Ethics
and Morality in the Sphere of Film-making and TV and Radio Broadcasting,”
drawn up by the State Duma. A report about a critical situation in the
Russian mass media, made by the Russian Journalists’ Union, stresses that
if the law was adopted, “the council is sure to become a censorship authority
with extensive powers. Its interference in the professional work of journalists
will not be restricted.”
The report of the Russian Journalists’ Union says
that, according to the draft law, the resolutions passed by the Supreme
Council will actually become a substitute for legal rulings of ordinary
courts. The journalists report that in the draft law, “the desire to create
another bureaucratic structure is camouflaged by phrases about ‘the need
for protecting constitutional rights of people’, ‘moral protection of the
family, mother and child’, and even ‘the consolidation of love and respect
for the fatherland,’ and ‘belief in kindness and justice.’”
The report mentioned the most burning problems facing
the Russian mass media, such as the lifting of privileges for the mass
media in the draft Tax Code. The report was sent to the administration
of the president, the State Duma, the Federation Council and international
organizations of journalists.
ITAR-TASS news agency, Spetember 9, 1997
II. Parliament passes radio-TV bill which Yeltsin vetoed.
The State Duma passed in the first reading a bill,
“On Television and Radio Broadcasting.” Twice passed by the Duma of the
first convocation, it was both times vetoed by the president [Boris Yeltsin],
reminds Valentin Tsoi, second in charge of the Duma committee for communications
and information policies.
The present version was sufficiently streamlined,
says Alexander Kotenkov, presidential envoy to the lower parliamentary
house. The new bill authorizes the activities of broadcasting companies
on government, private and non-profit property patterns. It treats licensing
in more detail than the previous versions, and stipulates regimens for
particular broadcasts, in particular, emergency announcements and children’s
programs.
The bill spectacularly simplifies the establishment
of new broadcasting companies. An applicant now needs only one licensee
instead of a previous package of authorizations from many offices, which
were “a bribe-taker’s paradise,” pointed out Mr. Tsoi.
The bill stipulates the formation procedure of the
Federal Commission for Television and Radio Broadcasting, whose members
are to be appointed by the federal parliament and cabinet and approved
by the president.
For the first-time ever, public television and radio
broadcasting companies will be established as public institutions and financed
by the entire community out of subscription fees, as prescribed by the
bill.
Valentin Tsoi highlighted an essential clause which
demands reasonable limitations on overseas investment and licence-holding
to protect Russian producers. The bill obliges television and radio companies
to preserve the secrecy of preliminary investigations, and prohibits information
broadcasts about private life unless the interested persons consent to
such broadcasts.
Russian news agency RIA, September 3, 1997
I. Top Chechen official involved in freeing TV journalists shot dead.
Nurdi Bazhiyev, a senior Chechen security official
who played a key role in the release of 5 kidnapped Russian television
journalists was shot dead later in unclear circumstances, another top official
involved in the operation revealed Friday.
Ruslan Aushev, President of the Russian republic
of Ingushetia, told the weekly Obshchaya Gazeta that Chechen Deputy Interior
Minister Nurdi Bazhiyev had decided how much ransom money was to be handed
over and to whom, but he was later killed.
The 5 Russian journalists, two from the VID television
company and three from NTV, were released in Chechnya on August 17 and
18, and top Russian and Chechen security officials have launched a joint
manhunt to track down the kidnappers.
The Chechen leadership has denied allegations by
NTV chief Igor Malashenko and Boris Berezovsky, deputy secretary of the
Russian Security Council, that senior Chechen officials had organised the
kidnappings and that the journalists had not been freed by Chechen police.
Aushev, whose republic borders in Chechnya, said
Bazhiyev had told him he knew where the journalists were being held, and
Aushev offered to help gain their release.
Later Alexander Lyubimov, a senior executive with
VID, said his company was ready to pay a ransom for its journalists, Aushev
told the weekly.
“Money was brought from Moscow to (the Ingush capital)
Nazran, and Ingush Interior Minister Daud Korigov and 50 policemen were
sent to Chechnya with the money,” Aushev said.
“I warned Korigov: ‘your job is to guard the money,
so that not a kopek is lost on the way. Bazhiyev decides how much is given,
and to whom. You just help him.’
“Money was given to some people, others were told
not to interfere, and yet others were bashed on the head. There was a bit
of everything—money, force, a desire to free the journalists. The bandits
were under pressure from all sides,” Aushev said, adding that “Nurdi Bazhiyev
and his boys did their job.”
Aushev said he did not know how much ransom was
paid.
Commenting on the death of Bazhiyev after the releases,
Aushev said: “I don’t know exactly how it happened -- most likely it was
an accidental shot.”
“Maybe somebody near him was fooling around with
a weapon and pulled the trigger.”
After the releases, Malashenko said a “seven-figure
number” in dollars had been paid to the kidnappers, who were “working directly
under the leadership of Chechen Vice President Vakha Arsanov.”
According to Arsanov, the kidnappers fiercely resisted
Chechen police who went to free the hostages, killing one policeman and
wounding six.
President Boris Yeltsin angrily rejected Malashenko’s
claims, but added: “We haven’t said everything, and cannot say everything,
about how our journalists were freed.”
Berezovsky said a ransom had been paid, but refused
to give details.
Agence France Presse, August 29, 1997
II. Chechen vice-president to sue Russian TV company chief.
Chechen Vice-President Vakha Arsanov has said he
intends to request the opening of a criminal case over the accusations
put forward against him by the chief of Russia’s NTV independent television
company, Igor Malashenko. Arsanov has issued an official statement saying
that he planned to file a suit over “the accusation of having committed
a state crime because of his mediation in the release (of abducted Russian
reporters) by paying a ransom to the criminals.”
At a news conference in Moscow on 19th August, Malashenko
accused Arsanov of involvement in the kidnapping business and, in particular,
the abduction of NTV reporters.
“The statements by Malashenko and representatives
of the Russian Security Council do not contribute to improvement of relations
between Russia and Chechnya, although the presidents (Boris Yeltsin and
Aslan Maskhadov) showed resolve to normalize them during their talks (in
Moscow on 18th August),” Arsanov said.
Earlier, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary
Boris Berezovskiy said the Chechen government did nothing to release the
Russian journalists.
Arsanov also said in the statement that Chechnya
“is adhering to the treaty on principles of relations signed in Moscow
on 12th May,” although respect for this treaty is “not obvious” as regards
the Russian side. “The people’s patience is not inexhaustible,” the Chechen
vice-president added.
Russian news agency Interfax, August 20, 1997
III. Yeltsin defends Chechen leaders against Russian media attack.
By Laurence Peter
President Boris Yeltsin defended the Chechen leadership
Wednesday from Russian media claims that they were involved in kidnappings,
and called for a serious drive to ease tensions in the turbulent North
Caucasus.
At a meeting of the Russian security council in
the Kremlin, Yeltsin launched a scathing attack on the head of privately-owned
Russian NTV television, Igor Malashenko, accusing him of inflaming ethnic
tension by insulting the Chechen leaders.
Yeltsin had dismissed the Chechen separatist leaders
as “bandits” during the abortive 21-month Russian military onslaught to
regain control in the republic, and his tirade Wednesday indicated how
much he has now staked on the peace process.
“The Caucasus is a complex region and we cannot
allow separatism to get the upper hand, or figures like Malashenko to start
press conferences by insulting the Chechen leadership,” Yeltsin said, looking
irate in a clip shown on RTR television.Malashenko said the kidnappers
“are working directly under the leadership of Chechen Vice President Vakha
Arsanov,” and he labeled Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Movladi Udugov
the “Dr. Goebbels of Chechen propaganda,” likening him to the former Nazi
propaganda chief.
Yeltsin, who held talks in the Kremlin Monday with
Maskhadov, charged that Malashenko did not understand the situation in
Chechnya “the way we understand it.”
Yeltsin also accused Boris Berezovsky, deputy secretary
of the Russian security council and a leading negotiator with the Chechens,
of having “incited” the media over Chechnya.
The talks Monday were aimed at cementing the reconciliation
process and laying the basis for a new treaty defining Moscow’s relations
with Chechnya.
“The North Caucasus remains an explosive region,
and all departments must take serious extra measures to stabilise the situation,”
Yeltsin warned.
He also said the United States was starting to interfere
in the North Caucasus, which has been dominated by Russia for more than
a century. “Our interest is weakening, but the Americans on the contrary
are starting to infiltrate this region and don’t shy away from talking
about it,” said Yeltsin, quoted by Interfax.
Under the peace deal signed last August, both sides
agreed to postpone a final decision on Chechnya’s political status for
up to five years.
Agence France Presse, August 20, 1997