Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 1, 1993 TAG: 9306010042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
The Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld a decision by lawmakers to put Russian Television, the ITAR-Tass news agency and the Russian Information Agency under their control.
In the March 29 vote, the Congress of People's Deputies placed those media under "oversight councils" consisting of national, regional and local legislators.
"This is an example of dictatorship," Oleg Poptsov, head of Russian Television, angrily told a news conference.
"Even the name itself - `oversight council' - implies an element of surveillance, which can easily turn into censorship," Poptsov said.
The councils would effectively replace the Federal Information Center, which Yeltsin created last December and which reports directly to him. The center is headed by one of Yeltsin's closest aides, Mikhail Poltoranin.
The media generally supported the center's creation, thinking it would protect them from the parliament. The 1,042-member Congress was elected before the 1991 Soviet collapse and is dominated by former Communists.
But conservative lawmakers said the measures were necessary to prevent Yeltsin from waging a propaganda campaign against them and returning Russia to its authoritarian past.
Yeltsin's critics, and even some of his supporters, say that Poltoranin's manipulation of state-run television was key to the president's victory in a nationwide referendum on April 25.
While far more open than during the Soviet era, state-run media have been accused of giving only light attention to Yeltsin's critics.
The court decision could be a blow to Yeltsin, but the president has not yet commented on the issue.
Russian broadcast media, most of which are state owned or controlled, enjoyed a wide degree of autonomy after the August 1991 coup. But as tensions heightened between Yeltsin and Congress speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, the media became a target of control.
by CNB