04 February 2004 03:14
NTV Is Laying Off Some Reporters
NTV television said Tuesday that it has started laying off some of its journalists. But management denied a report by
the Gazeta newspaper that the dismissals were part of preparations by owner Gazprom to sell the network.
As of Sunday, three correspondents -- Irina Bliznyuk, Yevgeny Maslov and Yekaterina Golovina -- were fired and
another 70 staffers were expected to go, said an NTV official, who asked not to be identified.
Both NTV staff and Gazprom-Media, the Gazprom subsidiary that runs the network, said that as well as on-air staff,
the layoffs would affect producers, editors and support staff.
NTV general director Nikolai Senkevich said 7 percent of NTV staff will be dismissed in all, according to Irina Gan,
a spokeswoman for both NTV and Gazprom-Media.
She refused to specify how many people the figure meant or how many the network currently employs, but insisted that
the estimate of 70 layoffs was strongly exaggerated.
"This is way too many," she said.
Once the country's leading privately owned network, NTV was taken over in 2001 by government-controlled natural
gas giant Gazprom in a move that was widely criticized as an attack on independent media.
Under new management, NTV immediately softened its previously highly critical reports about President Vladimir
Putin's policies, but has still remained a relatively independent-minded channel.
The recent dismissals have stoked speculation that another ownership change may be in the offing. Gazeta on Tuesday
cited unidentified sources linked to Gazprom as saying the layoffs were part of preparations for a sell-off.
Gan denied the report.
"A routine optimization of management structures is taking place in accordance with the shareholders'
wishes," she said.
She also insisted that the layoffs would not affect the quality of NTV's newscasts, nor would well-known news
anchors disappear from television screens.
"We are not talking about stars, but about support structures," she said.
"This will not hurt the quality of broadcasts. It will even make them better."
Both Gazprom-Media and NTV journalists were reluctant Tuesday to comment on the dismissals in detail.
"Everybody here is not in the best of moods ... because of all this," the NTV official said.
After Gazprom took over NTV, many of its prominent journalists left for TV-6, which was closed in 2002, and then the
newly created TVS, which was shut down last June.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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