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CNN Live Sunday

Another TV Station in Moscow May Be Shut Down

Aired December 02, 2001 - 18:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Another television station in Russia may be signing off for good. Some say it's an economic move, but others believe that it's an effort to silence the press. CNN's Jill Dougherty has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minutes to go before the 1:00 p.m. news broadcast on Moscow's TV6. Chief editor Irina Volkova barks orders to a reporter about to go live: "I know it's cold, put on a hat!" Russia's only major independent news channel is now facing a chilling future; a court ruling is threatening to shut it down.

If this story is beginning to sound familiar, it should. It's deja vu. Last April, these same journalists walked out of Russia's NTV in protest after it was taken over by the partially government- owned Russian gas monopoly Gasprom. That takeover fuelled demonstrations in support of NTV's journalists, who took a more critical approach to the Russian government, including its war in Chechnya.

The new team at TV6 significantly boosted its ratings, but another energy giant, Lukoil, which owned stock in TV6, sued to have it shut down, on the basis that it hasn't turned a profit.

(on camera): Just like the case of NTV, all of this is being explained as simply a business dispute, not an issue of media freedom. But just as before, that explanation doesn't convince everyone.

(voice-over): Yevgeny Kiselyov is TV6's general director, the same post he used to hold at NTV.

YEVGENY KISELYOV, GENERAL DIRECTOR, TV6: It's a politically motivated campaign to put independent media under government's control.

DOUGHERTY: But why now, when President Vladimir Putin is firmly supporting the West in its anti-terrorism campaign?

KISELYOV: There is a serious opposition to the new Putin's diplomacy from the army, from the former KGB and from other hard- liners. And that's why people say that Putin wants to pacify them, to give them something in return for his new friendship with the United States and the West in general that so irritates them.

DOUGHERTY: Few observers believe Mr. Putin himself is directly giving orders to destroy TV6.

ANNA KACHKAYEVA, MEDIA OBSERVER, RADIO LIBERTY (through translator): I don't believe in such a primitive version. I think he could be maintaining silence, or letting it happen.

DOUGHERTY: Well-known news anchor Mariana Maksimovskaya has various theories on why someone wants to shut down TV6, but no firm answer.

MARIANA MAKSIMOVSKAYA, ANCHOR (through translator): You know, we joke about it, that if you had a bullet in the head it would be easier, because you can't survive all this stress for so long.

DOUGHERTY: Whatever the real reason TV6 is under attack, Maksimovskaya thinks it's 80 percent certain it will be shut down.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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