Media control in Russia
Here is another development in tightening control over Russian media.Is this just another step toward total state control of traditional media?
Given the savvy of Russian hackers who made maintaining an online discussion group such a chore for me, I doubt that the state will be able to control new media the same way.
The Washington Post reports on the recent closing of the Educated Media Foundation.
Russian Probe Shuts Media Foundation:
Critics See Political Motive in Charges Against Group's Leader, Raid at Offices
"A Russian nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. government to train journalists and improve management at local television stations has been shuttered by a criminal investigation that critics charge is politically motivated.
"Authorities targeted the Educated Media Foundation after its head [Manana Aslamazyan, at left] was found with slightly more than $12,500 in undeclared currency at a Moscow airport..."The effective closure of the foundation, whose computers have been seized and bank accounts frozen, is the starkest example yet of the Russian government's hostility to Western-funded nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. The authorities accuse them of trying to foment the kind of political discontent that brought on street revolutions in neighboring Ukraine and Georgia...
"'I am confident the organizers of this case are in the Lubyanka,' said [Boris Kuznetsov, Aslamazyan's attorney], referring to the headquarters of the FSB, the internal security agency and successor of the KGB...
"Since 2004, USAID has given approximately $8 million to the Educated Media Foundation and its predecessor organization, Internews Russia. From 1998 to 2004, the United States provided almost $30 million to Internews U.S., some of which was sent to the organization's Russian arm..."
See also:
- The Educated Media Foundation press release about the current situation.
- Media Control in Russia
- And in the bad news...
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:30 AM
1 Comments:
From the New York Times, 21 August 2007
BBC Removed From FM Station
"An FM radio station in Moscow has dropped the BBC Russian Service, the latest in a series of moves that have reduced access in Russia to news produced by Western news organizations.
"The station’s new owners dropped the service on Friday, saying that broadcasting retransmitted content was limited by the terms of the station’s license; a similar technicality knocked content from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the air last year at most Russian stations.
"News on Russian FM radio has lost much of the diversity, as independent and skeptical coverage has been replaced by pro-Kremlin broadcasts and content determined to be “positive” by station supervisors..."
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