02 June 2004 05:55
RUSSIA`S TOP TALK SHOW HOST YANKED OFF AIR AFTER CHECHNYA REPORT
MOSCOW, June 2 (ONASA - AFP) - One of Russia's star political talk show hosts was fired overnight Wednesday
after going public with news that the government put pressure on his network to kill a controversial interview linked to
Chechnya. Some journalists and rights activists said Leonid Parfyonov's dismissal from NTV television marked the
latest chapter in the Kremlin's battle to control media coverage since President Vladimir Putin first came to power
four years ago. Parfyonov was sacked and his Sunday Namedni talk show canceled for revealing that his bosses received
orders from the government to pull an interview with the widow of former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The
controversial Chechen leader was allegedly killed in February by two Russian secret service agents who planted a bomb in
his car in Qatar. The pair are currently on trial in Doha and face a potential death sentence if convicted. Russia has
denied they were involved in the attack and is demanding their release. The interview with Yandarbiyev's wife was
aired by NTV television in Russia's Far East last Sunday but was absent from the Namedni show that went on the air
in Russia's European region. "I was against their decision to ax the Yandarbiyev interview," Parfyonov
told NTV television after signing his dismissal papers. "I did it only receiving an order (from NTV) in writing...
but I could not live with the indignity of having to pull an interview and then keep it a secret." The
company's director Nikolai Senkevich said he had to part ways with the newscaster "because of his serious
breeches of contract... and work ethics." A host of journalists and rights activists rose to Parfyonov's
defense. NTV television led its Wednesday morning news broadcast with its reporter's dismissal and quoted a brief
statement from the company -- now majority owned by state-run Gazprom energy giant -- as saying that Parfyonov was fired
because he also broke company rules in the past. "Parfyonov is undoubtedly one of Russia's most talented
journalists, but this incident was not the first," Senkevich said. The station fell under control of Gazprom amid a
dramatic year-long battle in 2001 by its journalists to keep NTV's independence. Prior to the takeover, NTV was one
of the only independent Russian sources on Putin's war in Chechnya and general corruption in government. Parfyonov
decided to stay on at NTV after the takeover and eventually became host of a Sunday political show that -- while not
always biting -- represented to many the last outlet of open television news. "The secret services have finished
off a campaign they began a few years ago. There were only a few independent media sources left," lamented Sergei
Grigoryants of the Glasnost Foundation that was founded in the late days of the Soviet era. Meanwhile the International
Federation of Journalists said the sacking was an attempt to pressure independent journalism. The general secretary of
the Brussels-based organization Aidan White said Parfyonov's dismissal "smacks of old-style commissar politics
in which journalism is subject to unacceptable controls." "It is another blow to hopes for more freedom for
journalists in Russia," he said. It was the second time in less than a year that management at NTV was reported to
have ordered a controversial story killed. But not all of Russia's top reporters agreed that Parfyonov's
sacking was politically motivated. "I think that this story is linked to journalistic ethics," said Vladimir
Pozner, an icon on Russian television screens who now produces a political talk show run on state-run Channel One
television. "He would have been fired in many other countries as well" for going public and criticizing his
company's management. "But of course, pressure is being put on television not to talk about the (Qatar)
case."
[ONASA News Agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
