Window on Eurasia: Non-Russian Broadcasts Threatened by Moscow Corporate Reform

21.03.05

Tartu, March 21 - The latest reorganization of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK) now being conducted behind the scenes threatens to seriously reduce the amount of
broadcasting regional channels will be able to do in non-Russian languages, a Moscow newspaper reported last week.

In an article entitled "The Vertical of State Television is Being Reformed in Secret," "Finansovye izvestiya" said on March 16 that the reorganization had already lead to the reduction in programming in Chuvash, Karelian and Mari - despite the fact that the Kremlin has not given final approval to the plan and regional officials have lodged
protests.

According to the paper, VGTRK officials are acting to bring their company into line with a 2002 law requiring that it transform itself from a holding company whose "daughter" companies have enjoyed relative independence into a single corporation in which each of the branches are subordinate to a central decision-making and financial center.

Both prior to the adoption of this legislation and in the months since, many media observers have suggested that this Putin-backed effort to re-introduce central control over the media wouldd limit the editorial independence of the various regional and central components that make up the VGTRK.

Few of them, however, anticipated that one of the first and most dramatic consequences of the implementation of this legislation would be a dramatic reduction in the quantity and quality of non-Russian radio and television.  But that is just what appears to be happening.

"Finansovye izvestiya" said that the new corporate structure being imposed has already lead to the end of Chuvash-language broadcasting, a six-fold reduction in the amount of non-Russian language TV programming in Karelia, and cuts in Mari broadcasts following an announcement there that the staff there is to be reduced by 50 percent.

Journalists in these three regions complained to the Moscow financial paper that VGTRK officials had not provided any explanations for the firings or the cutbacks in broadcasting hours. Instead, the journalists said, the Moscow managers have behaved as if they were carrying out "a secret special operation."

And the Russian Federation's Union of Journalists protested against  such actions, seeing them as a prelude to further attacks on the independence of all broadcasting outlets, including those in the Russian language and in Moscow, the Regnum news agency reported.

Local officials have expressed their outrage as well. Mikhail Mikhailovskiy, the chairman of the Chuvash State Council, has pointed out that the two-thirds of the population of his republic who speak Chuvash "had lost the opportunity to watch broadcasts in their native language." Others have made analogous comments.

And deputies of the parliaments in both Tatarstan and Mari El have denounced the move and called for the preservation of the interrregional radio journal, "Between the Volga and the Urals," the Regnum news agency reported.

Adding to the anger of all involved are reports that these cutbacks in non-Russian language broadcasting are taking place even though there has been no reduction in the amount of money the state has allocated
to the VGTRK as a whole, something that one journalist in Stavropol said means that "ever greater sums will remain in Moscow."

Station managers and journalists most immediately affected told the paper that they would use contractors or volunteers to try to restore at least some of the programs that have been cut back.  But it is unclear just how far they will be able to go in this direction given that decision-making power is now concentrated in Moscow.

Meanwhile, regional officials are taking other steps. Chuvash President Nikolai Fedorov announced that he will try to organize in his republic its own independent broadcasting operation, but at the present time there is no money in the republic budget for that.

And h ehas joined other leaders in sending letters to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov demanding that the premier look into what the VGTRK people are doing. These leaders are also seeking to have their Duma
representatives raise questions about this case and to revise the law if that is what is required.

Because this reorganization reportedly does not yet have President Vladimir Putin's imprimatur and because it is being carried out region by region rather than all at once, they may be able to reverse or at least modify some of what has already taken place.

But it is equally possible that the way in which the reorganization is being carried out - region by region, out of the public eye, and with officials denying that the Kremlin has approved  - may have just the opposite result and will thus make it even more difficult to block this latest assault on non-Russian languages in the Russian Federation.

In the last line of its report, "Finansovye Izvestiya" pledged to continue "to follow the situation." But that even the attention of a major central newspaper may not be enough to stop this corporate reorganization and the further centralization and Russianization of that country's media space.

Paul Goble