Channel One denies public channel reports
RosBusinessConsulting, 06.11.2008

Reports that a public channel will be created on the basis of Channel One are simply not true, Channel One PR Director Larisa Krymova told RBC.

“We know that a PR campaign has been launched against our television channel. We also know the goal of this campaign,” she noted, while refusing to comment on who was behind the idea.

Media reports appeared today that a public television channel might be created on the basis of Channel One, where 50 percent minus one share would be owned by the state and fifty percent plus one share would go to the Public Chamber of Russia and the National Association of TV Broadcasters.

The creation of the public chamber would be a sign of certain political liberalization, experts say. The initiative is said to be supported by some members of the presidential administration, according to the media reports.

The idea to create a public TV channel has been raised regularly by officials and members of the public. Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council, said back in 2004 that the Public Chamber created on the president’s initiative could be the beginning of truly public Russian television and a corresponding printed periodical. “This is vital for ensuring the influence of the Public Chamber and the openness of its activity,” he stressed. Mironov described Channel One as a “normal state channel” fulfilling its function, although it was no “public loudspeaker.”

However, experts polled by RBC are split on prospects for the Russian public channel.

Boris Reznik, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s committee for politics, IT and communication, told RBC that he fully supported the idea of a public channel. “It is a wonderful, splendid idea; the president also addressed media issues in his message to parliament,” he said, adding that he himself co-authored a bill on public television. Reznik expressed hope that the proposal would be realized.

He is convinced that there will be less violence, sex and advertising on the public channel. The lawmaker also backed the idea of control over the new channel by the National Association of TV Broadcasters and the Public Chamber of Russia.

On the contrary, Igor Yakovenko, secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists and General Director of the Foundation for the Development of Public Television in Russia, is skeptical about the proposal to create a public channel on the basis of Channel One. “I am very positive about the creation of public television in Russia, but in this case I have an impression that another dummy will be created,” he said.

The creation of public television is among the major challenges faced by Russia as a nation and Russians as a people who want to move forward, Yakovenko reckons. At the same time, he pointed to similar attempts by Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, now living in London in a self-imposed exile. “That television was in the same way related to the idea of public television as Berezovsky was related to democracy and progress,” he argued, warning against creating another such “dummy.” In order to assess the seriousness of the idea, Yakovenko says, it is necessary to analyze four elements: the way of creating such television (by a presidential decree or by a special law); the representation of public organizations in the channel’s leadership and supervisory board; the financing; and the content.