Media
The KPRF will demand equal access to the airwaves
Maxim Kostenko
A three-hour "Conversation with Vladimir Putin" was broadcast live for free, Rossiya TV Channel told the Communist Party, which then responded by demanding free air time for its own leader as well.
The KPRF received a reply yesterday to the query it sent to the TV channel. The Communists wondered at whose expense the two TV channels and three radio stations that form the VGTRK had broadcast Vladimir Putin's phone-in on December 4, when he spoke with visitors to United Russia's reception offices and to other Russians. The party also inquired as to the cost of the airtime devoted to the phone-in.
The channel's Director, Anton Zlatopolsky, replied: "No air time was granted to Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the all-Russia political party United Russia; neither Vladimir Putin nor the United Russia Party paid for it; no contract on information services was signed between the party and the TV channel."
Mr Zlatopolsky explained that Putin's phone-in was broadcast on Rossiya because the channel's policy is to inform the citizens of key public and political events, which "undoubtedly include the Prime Minister's press conference", as witnessed by the broadcast rating: according to TNS Russia, it was watched by 41.5% of the TV audience.
State Duma Deputy and Chief Lawyer for the KPRF Vadim Solovyov calls it a disingenuous document. It dodges the question of who paid for the massive project, and yet just renting the hall at Gostiny Dvor must have cost millions of roubles. A press conference is a meeting with journalists, an entirely different format. Besides, in previous statements a different motive was cited for the broadcasts; the Prime Minister's press spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that the programme was a VGTRK project and "an initiative of the media".
It was indeed a VGTRK project, says a member of the company's press service, in the sense that the company organised and conducted the broadcast. The company's camera crews worked in two dozen Russian regions and in Moscow, Putin was introduced by the company's moderators, Maria Sittel and Ernst Mackevicius. The party organised the participation of public representatives in the reception offices and visitors both in Moscow and in the regions, and also rented the premises, Andrei Vorobyov, member of the United Russia Executive Committee elaborated.
After receiving such a reply, the KPRF will demand that the same five media outlets broadcast, free of charge, a three-hour "Conversation with Gennady Zyuganov", Mr Solovyov promises. A rejection would amount to a direct violation of the law on political parties, which guarantees them equal access to the media.