Russia requires US "be portrayed as an enemy"

[fushigi]

This is unbelievable. There is now little doubt that Russian democracy - if the country ever had it - is a thing of the past. These new restrictions on its largest independent radio station are nothing short of devastating.

This is also very bad news for global security.

Story.

At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia's largest independent radio news network, the incoming managers had some startling news of their own: From now on, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be "positive." In addition, opposition leaders cannot be mentioned on the air and the United States is to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told. How would they know what constituted positive news? "When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive," said an editor still working at the station, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. "If the stock market is up, that is positive. The weather can also be positive." <snip> The three national television networks are already state controlled, though small circulation newspapers generally remain independent. Just this month, a bank loyal to the president tightened its control of an independent television station and Parliament passed a new amendment to a law banning "extremism" in the media. Prosecutors are now going after individuals who post critical comments on Web chat rooms, and Parliament is considering extending state control to Internet sites that report news, reflecting the growing importance of the Internet as the country becomes more affluent and growing numbers of middle class Russians acquire computers.

And the Bush administration says nothing.

Defending freedom my ass.

[Compugasm]

This is Anatoly Shastokovich reporting to you from Stalingrad: It has been raining for 4 days straight, and this will result in a 300% increase in the production of mosquitos. The good news is, the mosquitos will be killed in Russia brutal winter. Now, back to Bosom Buddies, staring the enemy Tom Hanks.

[Mr.Vicchio]

While to those of us in the west this may seem absurd, teh fact that the Russians are once again playing the media control game, and using the USA as their scape goat...

Not so good. The people in charge are up to no good IMHO, and it would be very bad indeed if we awoke some morning to find the Iron Curtain once again raised, and the specter of another Cold War upon us.

Not a good thing at all.

[Jack]

So I guess this means they won't be mentioning Boris Yeltsin's alcoholism in his eulogies.
ABC News: Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin Dies

[fushigi]

Dang, poor guy. Too bad he started all this by being the receptive member of Clinton's man-boy love.

Sorry to talk that way about the recently departed, but he did basically give Russia away during the "shock therapy" days; the people equated freedom with poverty, and clamored for a dictator.

Now they got one. The Kremlin runs Russia.

Long live glasnost and perestroika.

[Simmons112358]

Well it isn't really a shock, given Russian stance on politics for the last...ever? Yeah. The only thing that worries me is the increase of anti-American hostilities.

[dilligras]

Well it's about time......I was getting tired of our own media doing all the hard propaganda work to foment hatred for America.....finally, an unbiased outside influence on people's thinking. :rolleyes:

Boris probably just couldn't take any more commie crap and gave up living, rather than sit and watch the frog-like re-emergence of oppression from the dried lakebed of the USSR.


As you were.

[Night]

I'm curious, who was the person/s who gave the order, from the top? Was it Putin or one of his cronies?

[fushigi]

The acquisition of Russian News Service was by Channel One, a state-owned Russian company.

This was a top-down political maneuver.

Part of the new restrictions are that information regarding any political opposition - namely, former chess champion and star dissident Garri Kasparov - is forbidden from being aired.

Another new law is that acts of vandalism can yield an immediate 3-year prison sentence. These "acts" were poorly defined in the law, and can include political rallies.

With the next parliamentary election upcoming, this will certainly be the death knell for anything remotely anti-Putin in Russia.

Dark times.

[Slevin57]

Well I don't know very much about Russia. From what I do know, the country is setup to slip into a China like communism again.

We have made such great strides with Russia, I hope that our relations will not slip back to what they were. I don' know if the world would fair so well again.

[fushigi]

Actually, China's moving in the other direction, albeit VERY, VERY slowly.

Is China a communist, totalitarian country?

The first test will be to see how media freedom during the Olympics will go:

Chinese Olympic media deal strenghtened after special visit - University of Bedfordshire