• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Russian Media Need Independence From Oligarchs and State - Foreign Minister

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Paris, 11 October: Creating conditions for the economic independence of the mass media is one of Russia's main tasks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today at a colloquium "Where is Russia going" at the political studies centre in Paris.

He pointed out that "3,200 TV and radio broadcasting companies are registered" in Russia, "and only 10 per cent of them are state- owned; 46,000 newspaper and magazine titles are published". "Even if the authorities wanted to control this enormous number of media outlets, it would be impossible in practice," Lavrov stressed.

"Five or six TV companies operate at the national level, one channel is fully state-owned, and the rest are joint-stock companies, including some with participation of capital from Gazprom and the Unified Energy System of Russia joint-stock company," he said. "The opposition that exists in our country also has every chance to express its views openly and sufficient access to news channels," Lavrov said. "Euronews is accessible on one of the leading national channels."

"Our task at present is to ensure full and real independence of the mass media," the Russian foreign minister said. "The most important thing is to create conditions for economic independence for them, so that they are independent both of the state and of large oligarchic groups, which are more concerned with their vested interests."

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

More News in this Category