|  YABLOKO
and NTV
Special for YABLOKO’s web-site
By Alexei Melnikov, member of the YABLOKO Bureau
May 19, 2009
Journalists and politicians have been
repeatedly returning to the topic of the fight of
the most active part of the Russian society against
political censorship, which was most clearly demonstrated
during the meetings in protection of the NTV independent
television channel in April 2001.
All
Eyes on What May Be Shuster's Last Show
By Caroline McGregor, The Moscow Times, July 9, 2004
"Svoboda Slova," one of NTV's most popular
programs and the only political talk show on Russian
television that is broadcast live, will air at 7:35
p.m. Friday in what is widely expected to be its final
show.
NTV
to Abandon 'Freedom of Speech'
By Caroline McGregor, The Moscow Times, July 8, 2004
"Svoboda Slova," or "Freedom of Speech," is perhaps
the only remaining program on Russian television that
promotes political debate and allows more or less
unrestricted criticism of the Kremlin.
 TV6
Case Sets a Bad Example
The Moscow Times,
January 15, 2002
The liquidation of TV6 is not, as much of the Western
media insists on describing it, the end of independent
national television in Russia. TV6 is independent
of the government, but it is controlled by Boris Berezovsky,
who openly acknowledges that it is politics, not business,
that drives his interest in the television station.
TV6
Team Asks to Stay on the Air By Robin Munro Staff
Writer
The Moscow Times,
January 15, 2002
The management of TV6 made a proposal Monday that
it hopes will allow it to preserve its journalistic
team and continue running the television station,
which a court last week ordered closed. TV6 management
wrote a letter to Press Minister Mikhail Lesin giving
up the station's broadcasting licence so it could
form a new company in time to bid for the license
when a tender is held in April. In the meantime, it
asked to be allowed to continue broadcasting.
Oil
Co. Wants to Buy TV Rights
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer,
January 12, 2002
MOSCOW (AP) - After persuading a court to shut down
Russia's largest independent television network, a
subsidiary of the country's biggest oil company said
Saturday it wants to buy the channel's broadcasting
rights.
Russian
TV Station Ordered to Close
Associated Press,
January 11, 2002
MOSCOW (AP) - A court ordered the closure of the last
national television network outside the government's
control Friday - a decision prompting concern about
media freedom in Russia.
Ekho
Moskvy Staff Threaten to Resign
The Moscow Times Thursday, May. 17, 2001. Page
3
By Robin Munro
Ekho Moskvy's chief editor said Wednesday
he is prepared to take his 90-member staff to second-tier
television station TV6 if the journalists fail to
obtain a controlling stake in the independent radio
station.
Deal
to decide NTV future
CNN World, April 9, 2001
ST PETERSBURG, Russia -- The future of NTV television's
independence hangs in the balance as its new owner
considers an offer by U.S. media mogul Ted Turner
to buy into the station.
NTV
holds protest rally against takeover
The Times of India on Line, April 8, 2001
MOSCOW: Saying their independent voice was under
threat, journalists from Russia's pioneering NTV held
a rally under rainy skies on Saturday and urged their
supporters to stand fast withthem against a takeover
by state-connected gas company Gazprom.
Russian
TV takeover sparks protest
CNN World, April 4, 2001
MOSCOW, Russia - Journalists at Russia's only independent
television network are protesting against a takeover
by the state-run gas giant Gazprom.
Grigory
Yavlinsky on the situation at NTV
Radio Liberty, April 14, 2001
The leader of Yabloko Grigory Yavlinsky arrived early
in the morning today at Ostankino (Ed. the TV centre)
and said that the means chosen by Boris Jordan to
resolve the dispute around NTV were "absolutely inadmissible".
He also assessed the actions of the new heads of the
NTV as a "takeover by force".
TV
Station Taken Over. A state-controlled company stopped
Russia's only major independent TV station's journalists
mid-broadcast
By Peter Baker and
Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign
Service, April 14, 2001
"This is an armed seizure,"
said reformist politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who rushed
to Ostankino early this morning. Igor Malashenko,
one of the ousted NTV board members, called it a "creeping
coup," while human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov
said Gazprom's action was nothing less than a revival
of Soviet-era repressions.
La
nouvelle direction investit NTV
Le Figaro, 14 avril
2001
Ils y ont reçu quelques
soutiens, notamment de Grigori Iavlinski, le leader
de la droite réformatrice, qui a dénoncé "un coup
de force". Le défenseur des droits de l'homme et ex-dissident
soviétique, Sergueï Kovalev, a estimé que l'action
de la nouvelle direction avait montré que "le KGB
était au pouvoir", dans une allusion au président
Vladimir Poutine, un ex-agent du KGB, qui est accusé
de vouloir museler la presse indépendante. Vladimir
Poutine a refusé d'intervenir dans cette affaire qu'il
considère comme un conflit commercial. "Cette opération
est du même ordre que la tentative de putsch d'août
1991 et elle est effectuée par les mêmes personnes,
les membres des services secrets", a accusé Igor Malachenko,
un responsable de Media-Most.
Media
Takeover. Russia's Independent Network Taken Over
by Government
ABCNEWS.com, April
14, 2001
Members of the morning
shift at Russia's NTV was turned away from the studio's
early this morning, signaling that the Russian government
may now in control of the nation's only independent
television network.
I
Want My NTV. Battle Continues for Russia's Independent
Network
ABCNEWS.com, April
13, 2001
The morning shift at Russia's
NTV was turned away from the studio's early Saturday
morning, signaling that the Russian government is
now in control of the nation's only independent television
network.
NTV
a perdu son independance
TF1, 14 avril 2001
La nouvelle direction de
NTV a investi durant la nuit les locaux de la chaine
de television russe. Depuis 15 jours, les journalistes
refusaient ce changement au nom de l'independance
redactionnelle. Ils craignent d'etre museles par le
Kremlin, principal actionnaire du geant gazier Gazprom,
qui controle desormais la chaine.
Battle
for NTV reaches climax
CNN, April 14, 2001
The self-proclaimed new
managers of Russia's only nationwide independent television
network on Saturday took over NTV, changing the security
guards, firing journalists who refused their authority
and cutting off the morning news in the midst of the
broadcast.
New
Managers Take Over Russia's NTV
Associated Press
By Angela Charlton,
Associated Press Writer, April 14, 2001
Leading NTV journalists
who refuse to recognize the new management took down
large pictures of themselves that had hung in the
halls and left the building after signing a statement
they were leaving the station.
TV
Network Resisting Hostile Moves in Russia
By Michael Wines
The New York Times,
April 5, 2001
The day after Gazprom said it had gathered
the backing of 50.5 percent of NTV's shares and replaced
its management, the network's journalists assembled
in on-camera defiance. On television screens, the
bright red word "protest" was superimposed over the
white NTV logo.
State-backed
group takes control of Russian TV independent
From Giles Whittell
in Moscow
The Times, Wednesday,
April 4, 2001
The future of NTV, the only station
that regularly criticises Mr Putin, was in grave doubt
after a boardroom coup. Yevgeni Kiselyov, the director-general,
one of Russia’s best-known television faces, was replaced
by Boris Jordan, 33, a millionaire US-born invest-
ment banker who lacks any hands-on media experience.
Throughout the 1990s NTV, a channel that was built
from scratch by Vladimir Gusinsky and a team of journalists,
provided Russia’s only television news that was not
under close Kremlin scrutiny. Mr Gusinsky is under
house arrest in Spain as Moscow attempts to have him
extradited on fraud charges.
NTV
Managers Ousted in Gazprom Coup
By Andrei Zolotov
Jr., Staff Writer
"The Moscow Times",
Wednesday, Apr. 4, 2001. Page 1
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky: "This
is a kind of GKChP with the participation of foreign
capital. Everything we have heard in the Kremlin today
[Putin's address] has neither content nor sense. The
real course [of the government] has been demonstrated
here with NTV. The power is not interested in having
independent mass media in Russia."
Kremlin
Moves In on Independent TV
By Peter Baker and
Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign
Service, Wednesday, April 4, 2001; Page A01
A state-controlled company took over
the NTV network today and installed its own management,
signaling an end to the independence of the only major
television news outlet outside the Kremlin's orbit.
...Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Yabloko party,
compared it to the 1991 attempted Communist putsch
against Gorbachev, calling the Gazprom action a "coup
with the participation of foreign capital."
Speech
of Chairman of the Yabloko Association Grigory Yavlinsky
at the meeting to protect NTV and the freedom of speech
Moscow, Pushkin Square
March 31, 2001
Reformist politicians, soap-opera stars
and even a world champion gymnast joined the rock-concert
protest to pressure President Vladimir Putin's government
to call off its 10-month financial and legal campaign
against NTV, the only real source of television news
in Russia not under the Kremlin's control.
"We defended freedom in 1991, and we will do the same
thing in 2001," Vladimir
Lukin, a member of the State Duma, told the crowd.
Crowd
Gathers to Protect Russia's Freedom of Speech
By Peter Baker and
Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign
Service, Saturday, March 31, 2001; 12:15 PM
Even so, Putin appears to have public
support across Russia to do whatever he wishes with
NTV. One recent public opinion survey found 57 percent
support the return of censorship in Russia, while
a poll last year said 52 percent thought NTV would
be better if it were controlled by the government.
And even in the large crowd today, not all the bystanders
were supporters. One woman, young son in tow, glared
on the side of the square at the protesters. 'It doesn't
matter if they shut NTV down,' said the woman, who
gave her name only as Larisa. 'There will just be
another channel.'
Putin
Consolidates Power But Wields It Unsteadily
By Peter Baker and
Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign
Service, Monday, March 26, 2001
"The answer is simple: He's in charge,"
said Grigory Yavlinsky,
leader of the reformist Yabloko party. "The people
in the Duma are very eager at the moment to vote the
way of Putin."
Yavlinsky, possibly the country's most prominent liberal,
is an interesting case in point. He forcefully accuses
Putin of re-creating a police state, yet he keeps
ties with the administration in hopes of influencing
decisions. "We have a dialogue with the president
and at the same time we are in opposition to creating
a cooperative police state," Yavlinsky said.
20,000
Turn Out in Support of NTV
Combined Reports
The Moscow Times,
Monday, April 2, 2001, p.3
Liberals see the dispute and legal action
against NTV, as a test of Putin's commitment to press
freedom and fair reporting of issues like Russia's
war against separatist Chechnya.
"We know why they want to destroy NTV. So that we
will never know about millions of dollars being taken
out of the country or about how a war is being conducted
with slogans of fighting terrorism and corruption,"
Grigory Yavlinsky,
leader of the Yabloko party, told the gathering.
Big
Rally Defends Russia's Independent NTV Channel
By Ron Popeski
Reuters, Saturday
March 31 8:24 AM ET
"We know why they want to destroy NTV.
So that we will never know about millions of dollars
taken out of the country...about how a war is being
conducted with slogans of fighting terrorism and corruption,"
Grigory Yavlinsky,
leader of the Yabloko party, told the gathering.
"We know that this is not about fighting terrorists
and corruption but about the fight for press freedom."
Russians
Protest for Press Freedom
The Associated Press
Saturday March 31
11:52 AM ET
Thousands of people gathered in a central
Moscow square Saturday to voice support for freedom
of the press in Russia, especially the embattled private
NTV television.
Organizers and police said at least 20,000 people
turned out for a combination rock concert and political
rally to speak out in favor of press freedoms and
to defend NTV, the only major Russian television station
outside the control of the Kremlin.
Putin
Allies Seem to Gain in Battle Over Critical Press
Empire
By Michael Wines
The New York Times,
January 27, 2001
Mr. Gusinsky and his allies cast the
fight as a clear issue of press freedom, saying the
Kremlin is persecuting Media-Most to shut down NTV,
the last national voice of dissent with its policies.
Mr. Putin, it is true, has a decidedly non-Western
view of press freedom: he has said that the real threat
to the press comes not from the state but from the
tycoon owners, who merely advance their own political
cases.
Putin
Critic Puts His Media Empire Under Thumb of the Kremlin
By Sabrina Tavernise
The New York Times,
November 14, 2000
"This is a very shaky situation for
NTV," said Liliya Shevtsova, senior associate at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It is
the crown jewel and we have no guarantee that the
current management will hold on to their jobs."
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