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Not surprisingly, there is some weariness in politicians’ comments
about TV6 – most were used during the recent conflict around NTV.
These two stories have a lot in common - the same team headed
by the same leader, Yevgeni Kiselev, faces the same situation
again.
The tired comments may also be attributable to acknowledgement
of the inevitable. Over the past two years the state authorities
have made it clear that once a decision is taken, its implementation
is a matter of time. In the case of TV6, however, the viewpoint
and goals of the authorities remained unclear until the very end.
The reaction of the main Russian politicians and public figures
to the decision of Russia’s Supreme Arbitration Court to liquidate
TV6 did not yield any surprises.
“Our legislation and its judicial system are arranged so that
the legal and financial rights of two companies are always placed
before the creative rights of TV teams and the interests of the
TV audience”, noted Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the "Yabloko"
faction.
The SPS leader Boris Nemtsov told Interfax that the Court's
decision had been dictated "exclusively by political concerns"
and that "it was ridiculous to speak about an independent
judicial system in the country." He believes that the liquidation
of TV6 will lead to further monopolization of the dissemination
of information at federal level and that this could be interpreted
as a signal to get rid of all independent mass media in the regions.
The international reaction was also fairly predictable: the
US administration criticised the Russian Supreme court decision
to liquidate TV6. Judging by the statements of the spokesman for
the US State Department, Richard Baucher, the US was concerned
about the court's objectivity. He noted: "the verdict of
the Russian Supreme Arbitrary Court demonstrates increasing pressure
on the court institutions in Russia that determine the fate of
the independent mass media".
Kremlin’s supporters used the same argument invented during
the struggle for NTV. The Federation Council's spokesman Sergey
Mironov informed journalists that he did not see any serious political
motives in the court decision. He believes that politics plays
the same role here as in every other economic issue. Furthermore,
he did not think that there was even a hint alluding to an attack
on freedom of speech - "Freedom of speech is an internal
state of every human being. You can not put a word in a cage,"
he said.
Not surprisingly, there is some weariness in the politicians'
comments about TV6 - most were used up during the recent conflict
around NTV. These two stories have a lot in common - the same
team headed by the same leader, Yevgeni Kiselev, faces the same
situation again.
The tired comments may also be attributable to acceptance of
the inevitable. Over the past two years the state authorities
have made it clear that once a decision has been taken, implementation
is a matter of time. In the case of TV6, however, the viewpoint
and goals of the authorities remained unclear until the very end.
See also:
Freedom
of Speech and media law in Russia
TV6 Case
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