. 24/7 Space News .
Russia's Independent TV Channel Stops Broadcasting

File Photo: People rally to support TV-6, with one protester carrying a banner reading 'TV6, we are with you!' 14 January 2002, during the public action, organized by the youth wing of liberal opposition Yabloko party. Shareholders of the last Russian nationwide independent television station TV6 were to meet 14 January 2002 to discuss a timetable for closing down the channel following an arbitration court ruling that ordered its liquidation. AFP/EPA Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky
Moscow (AFP) Jan 22, 2002
The embattled TV-6, the last major independent television network in Russia, stopped broadcasting at midnight Tuesday after the press and media ministry suspended its broadcasting license.

The ministry had ordered the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation (MNVK), which held the license, to stop broadcasting as the liquidation order came into force, officials said.

TV-6 reporters and other prominent journalists protested the decision, which threatens to replace one of Russia's major television channels with a blank screen, in an on-air conference in the Moscow Echo radio station.

"This makes me sick. I don't know if one can force a blank screen on a television channel, but the very idea that someone would want to do that is simply foul," prominent journalist Vladimir Pozner fumed.

"I think that this is a unique incident, when a whole channel stops broadcasting. This violates the rights of their audiences, and this black hole is actually a hole in our democratic practice," complained Yasen Zasursky, dean of the journalism college in Moscow's State University.

However, rights activist Alexei Simonov suggested that the authorities would try to avoid having a blank screen in place of the TV-6, but would attempt to tie the outspoken reporters down.

"They will merely try to hang a few swords above their heads and make the team feel completely defenseless, so that they begin to do stupid things," Simonov told the Moscow Echo radio.

The TV-6 team said they suspected the decision was the Kremlin's retaliation against the rebel reporters, who had battled the state for the independence of national NTV broadcaster and left NTV for TV-6 after they lost.

"For a year we have been in the position of whipping boys. All we did was work our way, and that provoked this horrible reaction," reporter Yelena Kurlyandtseva said.

The state-owned giant Gazprom took over NTV in April as Russian President Vladimir Putin waged a war against Russia's so-called oligarchs, powerful businessmen whose fortunes were made in the unbridled free-for-all of the perestroika.

However, "(the Kremlin's war against) oligarchs is not important any more. It is we who are being destroyed," TV-6's show host Svetlana Sorokina echoed.

The team would still compete for the broadcasting license, the company's director and TV-6 show host Yevgeny Kiselyov assured.

Earlier, Media and Press Minister Mikhail Lesin said in a television interview that the TV-6 team's chances of winning the license would be "very high."

The company had been 75 percent owned by Boris Berezovsky, a powerful tycoon and former Kremlin insider who has become one of Putin's harshest critics.

Last week, the top arbitration court in Russia ordered the channel to be wound up on the grounds that it is bankrupt.

The ruling, instigated by minority shareholder partly state-owned LUKoil, provoked protests at home and abroad that the Kremlin was seeking to crack down on the free media and silence any criticism on the airwaves after the state-backed takeover of another private channel, NTV, last April.

Last Tuesday, journalists at TV-6 parted ways with Berezovsky to form "OOO TV-6" in an effort to save the embattled station.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express

Ecologists Are The New Dissidents In Post-Soviet Russia
Moscow (AFP) Jan 17, 2002
The case of Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, jailed last month for spying after telling Japanese media about illegal dumping of Russian nuclear waste, has highlighted the risks run by ecologists here in Moscow. Those who attack the Russian army, which ecologists claim is one of the country's biggest polluters, could easily find themselves in prison, just like the dissidents during the Soviet era



Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only














The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.