11:15 am: Supporters rally to NTV
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Read in this issue of updates:
- Rally for NTV in St. Petersburg draws 5,000
- Tatyana Mitkova leaves NTV
- Parfenov accuses Kiselyov of "using staff to fight new management"
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- RALLY IN ST. PETERSBURG FOR NTV DRAWS 5,000
St. Petersburg - Supporters of embattled NTV television rallied Sunday in St. Petersburg to support the non-government channel in its fight against a takeover by a government-connected gas company.
About 5,000 people attended the gathering, according to police estimates carried by the Interfax news agency. The rally in Russia's second-largest city follows one Saturday in Moscow, where NTV is headquartered.
NTV, the only nationwide television not controlled by the government, is fighting a takeover by Gazprom, which is partly owned by the government and has a Kremlin official as its board chairman. NTV says the Kremlin is orchestrating the takeover to eliminate the channel's independent news coverage of issues such as the war in Chechnya, government corruption and human rights.
Gazprom says it is entitled to take control because it is a major shareholder and is owed money by NTV.
| THE PLAYERS | ||||
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| NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky | Former NTV director general Yevgeny Kiselyov | New NTV director general Boris Jordan | CNN media mogul Ted Turner | Gazprom-Media chief Alfred Kokh |
- Tatyana Mitkova leaves NTV
Moscow - The prominent TV commentator Tatyana Mitkova is leaving NTV, an NTV news release reported, without explaining the reasons behind Mitkova's move.
On Friday evening, NTV journalist Leonid Parfenov also announced his leaving the TV channel in an open letter to NTV director-general Yevgeniy Kiselev. Parfenov criticized Kiselev for his steps during the conflict with Gazprom-Media, in particular, his methods of selecting candidates for a conciliatory commission designed to settle the conflict between NTV staff and Gazprom-Media.
Parfenov mentioned Kiselev's rejection of Mitkova's candidacy for inclusion in the conciliatory commission. "For the first time over the eight years of NTV, a proposal to take this person somewhere has been rejected, and in Tanya's [Mitkova] presence, too," Parfenov said.
"I have no choice," Parfenov said. "I don't even care whether you, while leaving a village, burn it down to the last house at someone's order or independently," the letter reads.
Read an interview with NTV's Tatyana Mitkova published in The Russia Journal earlier
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- Parfenov accuses Kiselyov of "using staff to fight new management"
Moscow - Top NTV presenter Leonid Parfenov wrote a scathing resignation letter in the Kommersant daily, saying he could not stay at the station after what he saw as the unfair exclusion of newscaster Tatyana Mitkova from a committee to negotiate with Gazprom.
Parfenov accused Yevgeny Kiselyov, the station's managing director and most prominent broadcaster, of using other staff as "cannon fodder" to fight the new management. NTV said later that Mitkova had also left the channel, but did not elaborate.
"You are our voice," a defiant Kiselyov told the rain-drenched crowd to cheers. "We will never give up on you."
| THE EVENTS | |||
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| 31 March, 2001, 20,000 attend press rally | NTV on-air protest |
NTV journalists keep vigil | Gusinsky (l) & Kiselyov in happier times |
- Further government shakeup on 12 April, predicts gazeta.ru
Moscow - Russian government will presumably undergo a number of serious personnel changes very soon. The restructuring was initially scheduled for May, Internet newspaper gazeta.ru has said. However, the Kremlin is unhappy with the scandal over the television company NTV. The best way of distracting public attention is to initiate another high-profile event. So, the expected date of the government reshuffle has been changed to 12 April, gazeta.ru says.
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NTV UNCOOPERATIVE, SAYS GAZPROM-MEDIA
MOSCOW - The Gazprom-Media company has accused NTV of torpedoing the first meeting of a conciliation board on Friday.
NTV has demanded that Gazprom-Media, the media arm of Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, join it in appealing to Russia's president and Supreme Court to speed up consideration of a suit against the decision of Tuesday's meeting.
The television company also demanded a moratorium on the decision and suspension of talks until a Supreme Court ruling.
"Gazprom-Media is bewildered over the attempts of the NTV representatives to bypass a legal procedure for court decisions," spokeswoman Aelita Yefimova told Interfax.
"We view the demand for an appeal to the president as a provocation."
The president has no constitutional right to intervene in court actions, Yefimova said.
"One gets the impression that the NTV leadership is deliberately wrecking the negotiations at a moment when there emerged signs of an opportunity for a dialogue with the journalists," the spokeswoman said. She said Gazprom-Media wanted a "civilized solution" of court disputes.
Yefimova said NTV had rejected a request by Gazprom for a meeting with the television company's staff.
She also dismissed recent NTV statements that Alfred Kokh, who on Tuesday was elected chairman of the NTV board of directors, and Press Minister Mikhail Lesin met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday and had promised to him to take over NTV in three days.
"There was no meeting in the Kremlin, nor were there any talks with the president," she said.
Read the earlier news about NTV from the RJ ticker
(sources: RJ, Reuters, AP, RBC)