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Russia: Ministry Says Important Media Should Enjoy State Support

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 15 November: The socially important mass media should have the right to state support. This stand of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications was articulated by its head Aleksandr Sokolov, speaking on Tuesday [15 November] in the State Duma at parliamentary hearings on "Improvement of legal regulation in ensuring advanced development of the national mass media as an important factor of strengthening the freedom of speech and further development of democracy in the Russian Federation".

"This support is mostly absent at the stribution [as received]," the minister explained. He noted that the ministry had worked out a bill on ensuring economic independence of the media, providing for an item on socially important publications. Besides, the ministry drafted amendments to the Tax Code, providing for several privileges for the mass media.

Changes are also being prepared to the basic law on the mass media. For this purpose, the ministry set up working groups on improving legislative activities. In Sokolov's opinion, this law "has been provoking disputes up to this time, but it is a foundation which held out under different turns of history". The law was adopted long ago. Many things were not provided for in the document, for instance, the development of the electronic mass media. "Lacking constructions should be put up on this foundation, and we are actively engaged in this work," the minister emphasized.

"The bill on non-government television also needs appropriate studies," he continued. "This is not an easy thing to do, since non- government television differs from state and commercial ones," Sokolov explained, adding that the need for such a legislative act "is long overdue".

Source: BBC Monitoring Media

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