Independent Russian Newspapers Accuse Authorities of Discrimination
The editors-in-chief of three independent newspapers in Sverdlovsk Oblast have published an “open letter” addressed to authorities at all levels in which they openly accused them of “disturbing the development of print media market in Russia, impeding free competition and non-targeted use of budget money.”
The authors of the letter expressed their concern with the governmental policy to support municipal newspapers. A recent bill by the Government of Svedlovsk Oblast “On State Support of the Mass Media in 2005” has passed, allocating 12.8 million rubles (approximately $500,000) from the oblast budget to buy newsprint for state-owned newspapers in the region. “The 55 municipal newspapers that are eligible for such support are not the only sources of information for their audiences. Unfortunately, in most cases the existing practice of state subsidies to mass media does serve the purpose of exercising control over them,” the letter states. The letter is addressed to the Chairman of the Informational Policy Committees of the Federation Council and the State Duma, Chairman of the Committee on Local Self-Governance of the State Duma, Minister of Regional Development, and Minister of Culture and Mass Communication. The authors of the letter call for legislative bans on authorities from establishing and funding mass media outlets of any form. The full story, in Russian, is at: http://lenta.ru/news/2005/07/14/letter1/.
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| The full text of the open letter appears on the website of USAID-supported
Association of Independent Regional Publishers (AIRP) at http://www.airp.ru/pismo.html. |
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