20 August 2003 17:35
TV journalists sacked in Russia`s St Petersburg ahead of gubernatorial election
[Presenter] Some 30 employees of TV and radio channels lost their jobs in St Petersburg last month.
The formal reason is inappropriate fulfilment of their duties. However, many analysts attribute it to the struggle
for the governor's post. Our correspondent Roman Osin has the details.
[Correspondent] Events taking place in St Petersburg this summer ahead of the election are clearly demonstrating to
the whole country what freedom of speech means in St Petersburg. The city's leading channels are in a hurry to get
rid of journalists whose points of view do not coincide with official policy.
First of all, they switched off the cameras of journalists and presenters working for St Petersburg TV and radio
channel 5. The leading St Petersburg TV channel has not seen such mass dismissals for a long time.
[Daniil Kotsyubinskiy, captioned as former head of news programmes department of St Petersburg TRK TV] The St
Petersburg TV company, as it was when I worked there, used to be a much freer media company than it is now. I understand
that, certainly, these censorship recommendations originated from the office of the presidential representative [in the
Northwest Federal District]. A number of pieces of indirect evidence make this quite clear.
[Correspondent] Kotsyubinskiy's programme, A Hard Day's Night, was taken off air after it was previewed in
newspapers. The new management of the channel, brought in from the local Russia TV Vesti St Petersburg, have issued
orders for Valeriy Tatarov's talk show Out and About In the City and Petr Godlevskiy's programme Inversion to
be taken off air.
[Godlevskiy, captioned] I have also been told that all my programmes should be pre-recorded and I should inform the
management beforehand about everybody I invite onto the programme. The situation looks like something out of the worst
sort of novel.
[Correspondent] Now, all the disfavoured journalists, two dozen of them, have set up an informal association called
St Petersburg's Line. This public organization is supposed to deal with the growing pressure from the authorities.
The TV representatives assure us that there will be no total lying in the broadcast media. St Petersburg's Line
will fight against those who want to force their decisions upon voters with the help of the press. Any violations of
freedom of speech will be brought to light immediately. However, we are not likely to learn in the near future how
successful it is.
[Ren TV] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
