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MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's top broadcasting official said Monday
that his office is working on bidding procedures for the broadcast
license held by TV6, the independent TV station that lost a legal
battle to prevent its closure.
Press Minister Mikhail Lesin hinted the government might support
a proposal to hand the station's broadcasting rights to its leading
journalists, an outcome that could ease accusations of a Kremlin
crackdown on media freedom by letting critical journalists stay
on the air.
``I doubt that there is anyone who is better prepared and more
professional now,'' Lesin said in an interview on Echo of Moscow
radio. He said an auction for TV6's permanent broadcast license
would begin in April after it closes.
The proposal to give the broadcasting rights to the journalists
was made late Monday by the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corp.,
which owns the TV6 channel.
The decision by a Moscow arbitration court on Friday to liquidate
TV6 sparked international concern about Russian President Vladimir
Putin (news - web sites)'s commitment to the freedom of speech.
The U.S. administration said it was ``disappointed'' by the court's
ruling and warned of a ``strong appearance of political pressure
on the courts during these proceedings.''
Russia's Foreign Ministry angrily fired back on Monday, accusing
the United States of ``double standards.'' The U.S. statement
was ``a call to put pressure on the courts, which is inadmissible,''
the ministry said, adding that the fate of TV6 was a purely legal
issue.
TV6, the largest remaining independent TV station in Russian,
was ordered dissolved as the result of a suit brought by minority
shareholder Lukoil-Garant, a pension fund owned by Russian oil
giant Lukoil.
Lukoil-Garant, which holds a 15 percent stake in TV6 and is
itself minority-owned by the Russian state, demanded that the
station be liquidated because it failed to bring a profit.
The TV6 staff includes prominent journalists who left NTV television
when it was taken over by natural-gas giant Gazprom last year
after a bruising legal fight. The journalists charge the takeover
was orchestrated by the Kremlin to punish them for critical coverage.
The largest owner of TV6 is tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a virulent
Kremlin critic who lives in self-imposed exile in London and has
said contends that the decision to close TV6 was politically motivated.
Lesin said Putin had been monitoring the TV6 case but that he
had never interfered in the legal proceedings.
A TV6 shareholder meeting scheduled Monday to discuss the liquidation
process was postponed indefinitely after it failed to reach a
quorum.
Also Monday, the youth wing of the liberal Yabloko party demonstrated
outside Lukoil's Moscow headquarters to protest the TV6 decision.
See also:
TV6 case
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