Russia plans 24/7 English TV channel
By Neil Buckley in Moscow
FT
June 6 2005 20:40
Russia is launching a 24-hour global satellite news channel in English
to try to boost the country’s image, battered recently by the Yukos
affair and president Vladimir Putin’s centralising tendencies.
The channel, Russia Today, is a project of Mikhail Lesin, a former
communications minister who is now a press adviser to Mr Putin, and
Alexei Gromov, the president’s press secretary. It also involves RIA
Novosti, the state-controlled news and information agency responsible
for pro-Soviet propaganda in the Communist era.
Those involved were meeting on Monday to put final touches to the
plans before an official media launch on TuesdayRIA Novosti and the
presidential press service declined to comment.
But one person familiar with the project said the channel was aimed at
combating what Moscow sees as the erroneous `Anglo-American’ view of
Russia, and put the country’s own viewpoint across. It would also seek
to represent the opinions of ordinary Russians.
The project aimed at least in part to counter the damage to Russia’s
image from the attack on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil magnate
sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony.
Funding was already in place for two to three years. But it was
unclear on Monday what the channel’s initial financing would be, with
estimates ranging from $10m to $30m, and the extent of Kremlin
involvement in the funding.
Plans for the channel were first revealed by a press release put out,
apparently in error, by RIA Novosti last week and hastily
withdrawn. Adverts also appeared in some western media seeking
journalists for an `English-language, 24-hour broadcast news channel
based in Moscow’.
The release said the channel, expected to launch this autumn, would
broadcast in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States,
Europe, the US, and some Asian countries.
It would `reflect Russia’s position on key issues in world affairs,
and inform the foreign audience about the variety of aspects of life
in Russia’. To ensure balance, it would have a supervisory committee
composed of `famous Russian and foreign public figures, journalists,
artists, scientists and businessmen’.
Margarita Simonian, a 26-year old former Kremlin reporter for Russia’s
Channel 2, has been appointed editor in chief.