#6 - JRL 2007-27 - JRL Home
TV chief says there is little if any political pressure on state media in Russia
Interfax

Moscow, 1 February: The first deputy director of All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and the general director of the Rossiya TV channel, Anton Zlatopolskiy, has said that the media of the holding company are not under political pressure as such.

"VGTRK does not live in a vacuum, and like any media is affected by many various forces and vectors, but this can't be labelled as pressure. It is a normal environment, including interaction with the owner," said Zlatopolskiy in an interview published by the Vedomosti newspaper on Thursday [1 February]. He said that the problems related to some officials' attempts to interfere in the company's work occur at the regional not federal level.

VGTRK branches which are editorially not dependent either on local or business elite quite often experience serious pressure aimed at gaining control.

However, up to now we have managed to come to the right decisions within the framework of which our regional companies on the one hand are not in stiff opposition to local authorities, and on the other hand they realize that being a part of the largest federal [TV] company, they firstly have to stand up for the federal interests in local news as well," Zlatopolskiy said.

When asked to estimate the work of the Vesti-24 [Vesti TV] channel Zlatopolskiy said that he was definitely satisfied with its launching.

"The unique possibilities of the VGTRK holding are being used hundred-per-cent in this project," he said.

Zlatopolskiy added that that initially the unique content of Vesti-24 was planned to be a cable and satellite project for a limited audience but it turned out to be in great demand by cable operators.

"At the end of 2006 we joined the cable in St Petersburg, in some regions of Moscow and in many regional cable stations as well," Zlatopolskiy said.

He said that in 2006 the budget of Vesti-24 was 7m dollars and in 2007 it will be 12m dollars. "Our strategy is to make this project profitable," he said.