The Political Council of the Russian Party of the Centre - Yabloko, St. Petersburg, expresses its protest at the liquidation of the TV-6 television channel and considers that this represents a logical continuation of the policies aimed at eliminating all mass media independent of the authorities.

We have an extremely negative assessment of the role of Boris Berezovsky in the political and economic life of our country for the past decade. But in this case the freedom of speech in Russia has clearly been oppressed under the pretext of a fight with oligarchs.

We consider all the declarations of a "dispute of economic entities" which resulted in the liquidation of the TV-6 television channel as political demagogy and an intentional lie. In our opinion, in this case the trial was used for political goals, as was the case with NTV. In our opinion selective court prosecutions depending on the loyalty of television channels are immoral.

We think that in this situation the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of speech and receipt of information have been violated, and that President Putin has not fulfilled his role of guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

We will consistently fight for a free and independent mass media.

See also:

TV6 case

web-site of the Russian Party of the Centre - Yabloko, St.Petersburg
(in Russian)