MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - There is no freedom of speech in the Russian media, said Russian Television Academy President and prominent TV journalist Vladimir Pozner.

"The law on the media is not observed in its essence here: I am insisting that there is no freedom of speech on our television, and not only on television," Pozner said at a roundtable conference on Thursday, which dealt, in particular, with morality on Russian television, possible amendments to the law on the media, and other issues.

During the recent parliamentary and presidential election campaigns, "there were some absolutely banned things: you cannot talk about this, you cannot show this, and you cannot invite that one."

"Therefore, it looks like we are discussing whether we should give some water to the patient, and as to the fact that he is simply going to kick the bucket, this we will discuss later. If we don't talk about the essential things, all this talk will be just to feed the poor," Pozner said.

National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters President Eduard Sagalayev agreed with Pozner. "There is too little truth and too much vulgarity on our television," he said.

The information policy that has taken shape in Russia "in fact does not provide for free debate and in fact does not provide for live broadcasts."

"And I just do not know what to do about this," he added.

Chairman of the Public Chamber's Media and Freedom of Speech Commission Pavel Gusev said that the media law had no clauses pertaining to the activity of publishers and media owners. "Not only authorities but also owners put pressure on the media, and we must do something about that," he said.

Gusev said it would be right to supplement the media law with clauses about the Internet.

All the participants in the roundtable agreed that the problem of morals was acute for Russian television. Yet everyone but a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church objected to the possible establishment of a public council for supervising morals on TV.

"I do not believe that any council can change something in our society and the media," Gusev said.

"I do not support the creation of a public council supervising morals either. In addition, the new council will require a lot of money. We would do better to invest such money in the production of children's programs," Sagalayev said.

Even if the council is made up of authoritative and unbiased people, they will be unable to cope with the large amount of television programs in modern Russia, said television journalist and head of the Public Chamber's Nationality Affairs Commission Nikolai Svanidze.