Press Release, January 28, 2014

Today YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin sent an appeal to President Vladimir Putin with a demand to facilitate resolution of the problems around the Russian Public Television (RPT).

“The situation with television in our country is not very good. In Russia there are few television channels covering events impartially and from different points of view. RPT is one of these few, therefore any attempt to improve the situation in this field should be welcomed by the government and the society,” said Sergei Mitrokhin notes.

According to Mitrokhin, the situation with the RPT, as well as closure of the RIA Novosti news agency, represent a bad signal: the government has taken a course towards toughening of censorship.

[Now] due to lack of funding for two months, the RPT management have to halve the company: abolish high-quality equipment, fire part of the staff and reduce the amount of news programmes from the regions as travel costs of journalists’ trips to the regions and work of freelancers involve high expenditure.

The channel was launched in May 2013 at the monetary support of the state amounting to 1.5 billion roubles. For this period the RPT has increased its audience, raised the level of public debate on political and social issues, begun broadcasting in a number of regions and produced a series of educational programmes high quality of which was marked by TV viewers and television critics.