Friday, July 09, 2004

Svoboda Is Not A Russian Word - II

From today's RFE/RL Newsline:

FORMER PUTIN COLLEAGUE TAKES OVER PERSONNEL POLICY AT NTV...

Gazprom-Media Deputy General Director Tamara Gavrilova has been named NTV first deputy general director responsible for finances,management, and personnel, lenta.ru and other Russian media reported on 8 July. Gavrilova was born in Leningrad and attended the law department of Leningrad State University at the same time as President Putin. In 1993, she began working for the External Relations Committee of the St. Petersburg city administration, which was headed by Putin. "Novaya gazeta" television critic Yelena Afanaseva told the website that the appointment is "logical" because NTV has been pursuing a policy of filling senior management slots with St. Petersburgers connected with Putin since Gazprom-Media took over NTV in 2001. RC

...AS MEDIA REPORTS INDICATE THAT POPULAR PRESENTER WILL BECOME NTV NEWS DIRECTOR...

NTV Editor in Chief Tatyana Mitkova is poised to become NTV deputy general director in charge of informational programming, replacing "Lichnyi vklad" host Aleksandr Gerasimov, utro.ru and other Russian media reported on 9 July. NTV has not confirmed the reports. According to utro.ru, Gerasimov has already been informed that his program has been abolished and he has been sent on one month's forced leave. "Izvestiya" wrote on 9 July that NTV General Director Vladimir Kulistikov has met with "Strana i Mir" host Aleksei Pivovarov and offered him a new Sunday-evening analytical program. RC

...AND SPECULATION CONTINUES OVER FUTURE OF THE STATION.

Russian media on 9 July continued to report that the popular NTV analytical programs "Svoboda slova," "Lichnyi vklad," and "Strana i mir" will soon be canceled. "The Moscow Times" reported that it is widely believed that the 9 July broadcast of "Svoboda slova" will be its last. Yabloko issued a statement on 8 July asking NTV managers not to cancel the program, which is the last analytical program on Russian television to be broadcast live. "[The program] is the last oasis of freedom of thought on Russian television," the Yabloko statement said, according to Ekho Moskvy. "Its banishment would be equivalent to the final extirpation of publicly aired politics from television." "Moskvoskii komosolets" on 7 July speculated that popular television presenter Leonid Parfenov, who was fired by NTV in June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 June 2004), might return to the station now that its management has been changed (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 July 2004). Shortly after Parfenov was dismissed, "Moskovskie novosti" Editor in Chief Yevgenii Kiselev wrote in his paper, No. 20, that "there are rumors that the firing of Parfenov was a clever move by the authorities, that the scandal was provoked with the intention of discrediting and removing the current leadership of NTV." RC


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