The head of the Russian Duma committee on culture, director Stanislav Govorukhin, proposed rethinking the ban on government control over television channels and newspapers because, he asserted, the “majority of Russians are dissatisfied with the existing newspapers and television channels” and the job of the media is to educate the young generation.
Govorukhin does not plan to initiate such a bill in the Duma and admitted that such a move could be unpopular, but, he stated “tomorrow everything could change.”
The irony is the Russian government owns all six national television networks, two national radio networks, two of the 14 national newspapers, more than 60 percent of the roughly 45,000 registered local newspapers and periodicals, and two national news agencies. Many other media sources are owned by companies with close ties to the government. The extent to which they coordinate their programming with the government is unclear, but there have long been rumors about regular meetings between TV execs and government officials where talking points (and non-talking points) are distributed.
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