Sergey Yugov: Russian TV-6 channel no longer broadcasts

The television channel TV-6 stopped broadcasting its programs today at midnight. The order was signed by the Minister of Press, Television, and Radio Mikhail Lesin in connection with a court decision to liquidate the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation, which owned the license to broadcast on TV-6. For the time being, the TV-6 television frequency is taken by NTV-plus sports programs.

Tatiana Blinova, TV-6 press secretary, could do nothing but acknowledge that everything happened within the framework of the law and no one had any claims with the fact that the broadcasting had been stopped. However, the journalists are still going to appeal the decision of the court.

The chairman of the Russian parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, believes that the supervisors of the channel got tangled because the first address from Pavel Korchagin (the executive director of TV-6) proposed the personnel of the company continue working on their programs. Then they decided to disavow that offer all of a sudden.

As a matter of fact, there have been too many angry comments pertaining to the scandal around the TV-6 company. Many well-known Russian politicians have already expressed their bitter opinions regarding the absence of the independent, all-Russian television in Russia. Sergey Ivanenko, deputy chairman of the Yabloko faction in the parliament, claimed that “the government was doing its best to put all the leading television and radio channels and press under the control of the Kremlin.”

If we suppose this is really so, is it not better than the totally uncontrollable situation with the media that has been created in Russia over the last decade?

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov