The government will deal with mass media: What is good and what is bad

The powers-that-be paid attention to the Russian mass media. Scandals around NTV, TV-6, Echo Moskvy radio station, and many others exert a negative influence on the image of the country. One may come to conclusion that the informational policy of the state has to built from scratch

The Kremlin believes that mass media outlets forgot about their destination to serve the interests of the society, as they turned into the instrument of manipulation in oligarchs’ hands, but they still claim that they are the “fourth power.” The government decided that something should be done about it, and the head of the Press Ministry started working.

The press minister believes that the mass media market in Russia is oversaturated. The minister said that there were 6.5 thousand electronic media outlets functioning in the country, and about ten or twelve political newspapers are produced in every town. Lesin claimed that electronic mass media could be cut twice. The Strana.Ru website reported that Lesin made these remarks during his speech at the national session of editors-in-chief, which was held on Monday by the party “Joint Russia.” Lesin also informed that the mass media market and the issue of relations between the government and the media would be analyzed in July. Speaking about printed newspapers, Lesin said that there was a need in only four papers: two political and two non-political.

The law on mass media will be thoroughly edited, taking account of the new reality in order to make everything just perfect. This information was confirmed today by the Speaker of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov. The speaker said on Thursday that “the law had to be changed fundamentally,” since the law on mass media was passed in Russia in the beginning of the 1990s, and “the political and economic situations in the country changed a lot.”

Mironov does not think that the law has to become tougher; it simply has to correspond to the current situation in the country. Answering journalists’ questions, Mironov said that “the redistribution of the property in mass media as well as in other fields was not over yet.” This unhealthy tendency is not likely to improve the image of the state.

Relations between the state and mass media are based on the following principle: “I want, but I can’t.” At first the Council of Association of Media Industry established, which was meant to make Russian journalism not only independent, but also constructive towards the government. The founders of the council had their idea approved on the top level. Then. “the party of power” had a meeting with the leaders of the regional and central mass media and tried to establish a constructive dialogue with them (i.e. to buy them). So, what’s next?

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov