Russia pulls plug on 'last independent TV show'

Russia pulls plug on 'last independent TV show'

Moscow (AFP) - A programme seen as Russia's last independent show on mainstream television has been taken off the air amid an upsurge in anti-Western rhetoric, in a move condemned by Kremlin critics.

Ren TV's weekly analytical programme hosted by one of Russia's best known anchors, Marianna Maximovskaya, has been abruptly cancelled, said journalists on the show launched in 2003.

"The programme has been cancelled by the management of the channel," one of the journalists, Roman Super, told AFP.

"Staff had not expected this and learnt about this together with everyone one else yesterday. What will happen next we -- employees on the show -- do not know," he said in written comments.

"The reasons for shutting down the programme are so obvious that they do not need to be commented upon."

Another staffer, Elena Vorotilova, simply wrote on Facebook: "Looking for a job."

The channel, which describes the show "as the bravest programme", was not available for comment on Saturday.

Most importantly now - Emphasis below added by me.

All major television channels in Russia are state-controlled and closely toe the Kremlin line.

Ren TV is the country's last nationwide TV network with largely independent news programming, and the analytical show "Nedelya with Marianna Maximovskaya" (Week with Marianna Maximovskaya) was seen as one of the channel's gems.

Among colleagues Maximovskaya, 44, has long been seen as the odd one out, regularly interviewing Kremlin critics including former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom she spoke to in Berlin upon his sudden release from a Russian prison late last year.

Together with Internet TV channel Dozhd, the Echo of Moscow radio station and a handful of newspapers, Ren TV has been seen as a safety valve giving Kremlin critics an opportunity to vent their frustration with the authorities.

Click link for remainder of article....

So thats it.. No more privately owned tv channels / networks in Russia. They are all now owned and operated / dictated to by the Kremlin.

It's so nice to see Putin pushing Russia back into a time period where they lost the cold war and their government collapsed.

Now, about those Pro Russians who keep maintaining there is no censorship in Russian media and that the networks are not state controlled or dictated to by the Kremlin.

It certainly undermines the message Russian media puts out about Ukraine and should make Russians question whats actually occurring there.

I think it is now safe to assume that anything Russian media reports on should be called into question before accepting it since it is now obvious they have no interest in the truth. Russian media can no longer be trusted.

* - 93,000 media outlets
* - 27,000 newspapers and magazines
* - 330 television channels.


To our Pro Russian friends - what say you?

Don't forget their recent draconian internet laws as well - requiring all bloggers and website owners to register with the State and submit themselves for censorship.

New "Draconian" Internet laws in Russia

a reply to: Xcathdra

This is all well and true,but I'll be honest on this. What Russia does in their country is not our problem really. We have 6 companies that own all the msm here in the states.THAT worries me a lot more. I don't want us to get caught up pointing at someone else on what they are doing wrong,when in reality we are doing the same here even if the methods may be different. We can't even begin to correct our problems until we start looking at them and admitting we have them. Let Russia do as they please in their own country I say.

originally posted by: Dimithae
Let Russia do as they please in their own country I say.

Oh, the irony..........

I'm sure we'd all be happy to let Russia do as they please, if perhaps they would do the same? Instead, they interfere in their neighbours internal politics and attempt to dictate to them how they should relate to the rest of the world. I'm not just talking about the Ukraine either.

I am sure this won't be broadcast on RT.com, the oft used source of news by some on ATS who use it is evidence the West is bad and Russia is good.

The censorship and control of the media in Russia is a serious issue. This shows Putin's Russia is becoming increasingly authoritarian, which is a backward step for Russia and the Russian people. You just need to look to China - where media has been very tightly controlled - to see the impact. The Communist Party is still in charge and human rights are secondary! Putin's control of the press is about maintaining himself in power, alongside his corrupt cronies - many of whom are amongst the richest people on the planet.

Regards

a reply to: stumason

Oh, the irony...
WOW. I can't believe what you just wrote. Why are you playing dumb?

The leader countries of EU with US, started quite a few "revolutions" in the past, many of them since the beginning of this milenium. So many more than Russia ever did.

But, hey, if our countries do it, then it's okay, we're doing it for the sake of people, but if Russians do it, then that is not okay...

Double standards, what a shock? Not really.

a reply to: Nikola014

That's a sweeping statement if ever there was one...

"So many more than Russia"? Really? Maybe in the past 10 years, not that Russia has been inactive that is, but if we look at the whole Cold War period, both sides played this game quite a lot.

It is quite hypocritical of you though to drag up history when, only in the past day, you were bitching and whining about me referencing Russia's past use of SS-21's because it "had nothing to do with the OP" of the Ukraine using "WMD".

Either we can reference history, or we cannot. Which is it?

And apparently I am the dumb one.....

a reply to: Nikola014

Any input on the article and Russia's consolidation of their media?

a reply to: Dimithae

Russia can do whatever it wants inside their borders. Since Russia and the west are involved in Ukraine, my question, and reason for the topic, was are the Russians being told the whole story or just what the Kremlin wants them to know. Moving beyond Ukraine it makes one wonder if Ukraine is not the catalyst for complete media control in Russia.

When Russian media portrays the US as this or that, we will very much need to take an interest in Russian media. Even more so when the messages being put out can lead to armed conflict based on media bias and lack of counter media to cool it down or outright call bs on the government position.

Absolute control over the media was how Nazi Germany took rise... I dont know about you but I would rather nip this in the but, on both sides of the planet, rather than see news accounts that would make WWI and WWII combined look like a picnic in the park.

The inability to challenge the government story is dangerous... It can have an impact far beyond the borders of the country in question.

a reply to: Dimithae

Another thought occurs to me, this is nothing like the US having it's media controlled by a group of private firms.

Now, in Russia, nothing gets said without State approval. Nothing embarrassing about Putin's bedtime antics, nothing shameful about what Russia does in the world, nothing bad about the Government and what it has/hasn't done - nothing at all.

In the US (or the West at large), Media outlets would fall over themselves to get a scoop on the President and actively compete with each other to show up the Government's failings wherever possible. If the Government tries to shut them up, that causes an even bigger scandal. Even in the UK with it's "D-notices", these are merely requests to not run a story and are not legally binding at all.

A fundamental and key difference.

a reply to: stumason

Alright, since this is off-topic, send me on pm the alleged revolutions that were caused by either Russia or Soviet Union, I'm dying to see that. You are talking a bunch of nonsense in my honest opinion.

Xcathdra, I really don't feel like judging anything that's going on in another country that's not my own, since it's not any of my business. But, I don't know why are you all acting surprised, when media are being controlled by governments all over the world. Somewhere that control is smaller, and somewhere it's bigger.
A independent journalism doesn't exist anymore. Not even in small countries like my own.

Insult.. meet injury -

Crimeans are now using the Russian internet - Users likely to face Russian censorship

Russia may have claimed Crimea as its own, but it takes much more than annexation to truly integrate the peninsula into the mainland. One of those steps has just been completed, as a large portion of Crimean internet traffic is now being routed through Russia for the first time. According to research from internet analysis company Renesys, internet signals started flowing through a newly-constructed submarine cable connecting Crimea to Russia on July 24th.

The process didn't happen over night. After Russia annexed Crimea in late March, officials started work on bringing the peninsula into the fold. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was quoted on March 24th saying that "it is necessary to ensure that [state-owned Russian telecommunications company] Rostelecom and its subsidiaries come to Crimea as quickly as possible." He cited concerns that "sensitive information and documents ... are [being] relayed by foreign telecommunications companies," and immediately ordered construction of a roughly 28-mile cable underneath the Kerch Strait to connect Crimea to Russian internet systems. That cable was completed on April 25th.

Click link for remainder of article.

Next up -
Putin's Next Invasion? The Russian Web

oogle (GOOG) Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt warned last year that Russia was “on the path” toward Chinese-style Internet censorship. Vladimir Putin is proving him right. At a meeting with media executives in St. Petersburg on April 24, the Russian president said his government will impose greater control over information flowing through the Internet, which the former KGB lieutenant colonel has called a creation of U.S. spy agencies.

Russia’s Parliament has approved a law similar to China’s that would require Internet companies such as Google to locate servers handling Russian traffic inside the country and store user data locally for six months. The legislation, which is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1, also classifies the roughly 30,000 Russian bloggers who have 3,000 or more readers as media outlets, making them and the companies that host them subject to regulation. “This law is a step toward segmenting and nationalizing the Internet and putting it under the Kremlin’s control,” says Matthew Schaaf, a program officer at Freedom House, a research group in Washington. “It could have a serious chilling effect on online expression in Russia, making users stop to think how their Google searches and Facebook posts could be used against them.”

Russian intelligence agencies, like their U.S. counterparts, constantly expand their online capabilities, Putin said at the April 24 meeting, adding that Russia must protect its information in a field dominated by U.S. companies. The bill on retaining user data follows a law enacted on Feb. 1 that gives Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, the power to block, without a court ruling, websites deemed “extremist” or a threat to public order.

Click link for remainder of article.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
So thats it.. No more privately owned tv channels / networks in Russia. They are all now owned and operated / dictated to by the Kremlin.

REN TV is privately owned, as are many TV channels/networks, as you can see here, but, as in the case of REN TV, there are many owned by companies headed by people close to the government or to Putin himself.

a reply to: Dimithae

I tend to agree. Im not American but i am western. I think our society is incredibly corrupt and authoritarian, too, and becoming increasingly so. With the information now available on the internet, and the intellect to validate it, it makes me sick to think about how badly we have been manipulated and mistreated. Its hard to make a decision as i don't have access to all the information our leaders have (and by leaders i mean people that occupy positions many layers above politicians), but I think we need to build a society and lead by example, as opposed to imposing ourselves on others like the Rhodes trust and others have been trying for for 100+ years.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Back to the 1950's

Putin is a fool...

Like we don't have censorship in this country and agenda driven media.

Flag draped coffins anyone?

Let's be real. What the public is "informed" about in any country is determined by the top and not the reporters on the ground unless it fits an agenda.

Censorship

Anyone who supports/justifies it either in the East or West based on their own geopolitical paradigm is only fooling themselves. China has the 'Great Firewall' Russia has some time ago pulled the plug on Russian online dissension.

We here today are still able to say what we want freely about this sort of crap East or West.

That's the difference no matter what some MSM chowder head spews...

a reply to: FlyersFan

Stone cold hard killer? And then calling him brilliant in the same sentence...

Care to present some evidence to back up those claims? Also, he has a plan that's bad for everyone? Want to share what that plan might be with the rest of us?

Everyone's guilty till proven wrong?

I seriously see why ATS lack serious debates, when we have people saying stuff like this and getting away with it like nothing ever happened.

originally posted by: Terminal1
Like we don't have censorship in this country and agenda driven media.

To an extent sure.. However I don't see people being dragged outside of their homes for voicing their opposition to our government, our governments actions, those calling for Obama to be impeached, and I certainly don't see US citizens being required to register with the government for blog sites or independent media.

originally posted by: Terminal1
Flag draped coffins anyone?

3 immediate issues come to mind -

#1 - The return of military remains via military jets usually land at military facilities, which are generally off limits to media and private citizens for obvious reasons.
#2 - In some cases privacy laws will apply.
#3 - The "Dover Test"

originally posted by: Terminal1
Let's be real. What the public is "informed" about in any country is determined by the top and not the reporters on the ground unless it fits an agenda.

and I completely and totally disagree with what you are stating here. Iraq, Libya, Syria... I dont see people being quiet on those topics in the US press / population. We see quite a bit of argument on this site over those topics.

This is my point with Russian media... We can challenge ours without being killed. If we are killed others can challenge it still.

Can you say the same for Russian media and its people?