Johnson's Russia List
#8039
29 January 2004
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A CDI Project
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Moscow Times
January 29, 2004
The Kremlin's Harmful but Beautiful Insect
By Anna Dolgov
Special to The Moscow Times
It's the country's last major broadcaster of independent news, a radio
station that the Kremlin reportedly sees as hostile but still respects for
its biting professionalism.
However, Ekho Moskvy, or Echo of Moscow, may be living on borrowed time.
Its journalists, who say they are caught in constant disputes with
government-linked majority shareholder Gazprom, seem ready to throw in the
towel. They want to sell out their blocking stake in the station -- and
with it, control over programming.
"The situation is favorable because, on the one hand, there is a will to do
so and, on the other, we are being bothered from all sides," general
director Yury Fedutinov said.
With the main television networks firmly under government control and
effectively acting as Kremlin mouthpieces, Ekho Moskvy remains critical of
President Vladimir Putin's policies. Its survival so far seems partly due
to the fact that it has some influential supporters within the Kremlin who
turn to Ekho Moskvy for the news.
"They explain to President Putin that we are a harmful insect but a
beautiful one," said Ekho Moskvy chief editor Alexei Venediktov, sitting in
his tiny office off a hall covered with autographed photographs of the
station's celebrity guests.
Independent media analysts concurred with Venediktov's description.
"They are now a serious and even unique radio station, and a much-needed
one," said Yasen Zasursky, the dean of journalism school at the Moscow
State University.
"I think that any person interested in the real spectrum of moods in
society tunes in to this radio. For those who only want to hear praise, it
is not a good source, but for those who want a real picture of events, this
radio provides a great deal," he said.
Since its creation in 1990, Ekho Moskvy has risen to being the country's
premier news radio station. A deputy prime minister in Putin's
administration is said to have described the station at a Cabinet meeting
as "part of Russia's cultural landscape."
During the 1991 hard-line putsch against Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev, Ekho Moskvy was the only broadcaster that brought the nation
independent accounts of the dramatic standoff, airing reports from a
14th-floor studio overlooking Novy Arbat despite repeated attempts to
muzzle it.
Ekho Moskvy also draws millions of listeners with its trademark live -- and
lively -- interviews. Recent guests include U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Prince Albert
of Monaco.
During a visit in 2000, former U.S. President Bill Clinton fielded call-in
questions on everything from missile defense and international finances to
the possibility of his returning to the White House as the husband of
President Hillary Clinton.
Ekho Moskvy was once part of financier Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST
empire, which was taken over in 2001 by government-controlled Gazprom. The
gas giant said it was recouping multimillion-dollar debts that Media-MOST
could not pay; critics said it was a Kremlin-orchestrated attack motivated
by the media's critical coverage.
Gazprom replaced the top managers at Media-MOST's flagship television
network NTV, shut down its daily newspaper Segodnya, and sacked the
journalists of Itogi magazine. Only Ekho Moskvy was left relatively unscathed.
"We have already lasted three years longer than the time allotted us,"
Venediktov said. "When NTV was crushed, we should have followed immediately
because we were more critical."
One reason that the station was left alone was that unlike the other media
outlets, it was free of debts and even profitable -- making it virtually
impossible to take it over under a financial pretext.
Another, analysts said, was to guard against further damage to Putin's
international reputation amid wide criticism over the Media-MOST takeover.
Most important, however, could be the fact that while Ekho Moskvy reports
might sting the Kremlin, the station is not nearly as capable of swaying
public opinion as television.
A poll conducted earlier this month by Romir Monitoring indicates that
while 39 percent of Russians trust national television, only 7 percent
trust radio.
Ekho Moskvy's audience is also much smaller than that of national
television networks -- even though it leads by far among news radio
broadcasters. Some 665,000 people in Moscow tune in to Ekho Moskvy every
day, according to the latest survey by Comcon, conducted in December, in
addition to another 2 million or so in the regions.
Only music radio has a larger audience, with more than 1.1 million
listeners every day in Moscow alone tuning in to the most popular station,
Russkoye Radio, according to Comcon.
FM broadcasts by state radio Mayak -- the second most-popular news radio
station -- trails far behind Ekho Moskvy with 151,000 listeners in Moscow,
according to Comcon.
While Ekho Moskvy's audience remains large, it has lost broadcasting
contracts in 50 cities over the past three years and is now received in
only 39 regions.
"So many cities dropped out between 2000 and 2003," Venediktov said.
"Dealing with heretics ... was too much trouble" for regional partners, he
said.
Ekho Moskvy's journalistic freedom is protected in part by its charter,
which states that the editorial policy is determined exclusively by the
chief editor. As long as the journalists keep their 34 percent blocking
stake in the station, the charter cannot be changed without their assent.
The remaining 66 percent belongs to the Gazprom-Media holding.
But disputes with Gazprom over managerial issues have been growing,
prompting station staff to offer up their stake, according to both
Venediktov and Fedutinov.
"Gazprom has a firm system of management, an elaborately built vertical of
administration, and it doesn't matter whether they are dealing with natural
gas or with mass media," Fedutinov said.
"Playing corporate games with a large shareholder like that is difficult
for us," he said.
Gazprom does not seem to be enthusiastic about the offer, but Ekho Moskvy
journalists are also in talks with other potential investors, said
Fedutinov, who is leading the negotiations.
Gazprom said any talks about a sale are informal at this stage.
"Gazprom-Media has received no official offers from the minority
shareholders regarding such a deal, the sale of the 34 percent stake,"
company spokeswoman Irina Gan said.
She refused to comment any further on the matter.
A sale could be a win-win situation for the journalists, said Alexei
Pankin, editor of media magazine Sreda. They could pocket a substantial
amount of money and still maintain their independence by threatening to
quit if the new owners meddle in the editorial policy, he said,
"Having good money sitting in a bank account somewhere would even allow
them to feel much better about dealing with Gazprom than having some
mythical package of shares," he said. "In the media business, the
immaterial assets are more important. Pocket the money and keep on working."
Alexei Samokhvalov, head of the National Research Center for Television and
Radio, said Gazprom may be reluctant to buy out the shares over fears that
turning Ekho Moskvy into a fully owned subsidiary would damage the
station's reputation, thus costing it part of the audience and profits.
"In this country, like nowhere else in the world, we are interested in who
the owners are, who is behind all this, and can this be trusted,"
Samokhvalov said.
Gazprom-Media already has five entertainment radio stations, and even if it
buys out the 34 percent stake, it seems to make business sense for the
holding to preserve Ekho Moskvy in its current form.
Still, the future of Ekho Moskvy will become clearer "when we know who the
new owner may be and what he wants -- because he may want to turn it into
some sports radio station," Samokhvalov said.
With a sellout in the offing, is there any risk that the Ekho Moskvy as
Russians know it may disappear?
"I wouldn't paint such an apocalyptic scenario," Fedutinov said. "But in a
year or two, it may happen."
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