One of Russia’s best known television news presenters Alexey Pivovarov revealed the extent of state media censorship during President Dmitry Medvedv’s final interview before he hands power to Vladimir Putin. During the wide-ranging interview with journalists from a number of the country’s major television channels, NTV host Pivovarov said: “The hand of the state is obviously seen in controlling federal TV channels’ editorial policy.” He added: I regularly confront certain limitations, stipulated by political suitability. This [control] prevents me from fulfilling my professional duty – informing people of current events. Medvedev denied censorship exists, pointing out the Russian constitution forbids it. He said that it is “natural that political influence is higher on bigger channels”, adding that “the question of censorship within a channel is [...]

Opposition activists have sued Russian television station NTV after the channel aired the documentary “Anatomy of Protest”, which claimed people were paid to participate in recent mass protest rallies. Eleven years ago thousands of people gathered in Moscow in support of Russian private NTV channel, protesting against state-owned Gazprom’s subsidiary — Gazprom Media Holding — buying it from media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky. He had faced pressure from Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin to sell NTV (as well as “Echo of Moscow” radio station). That rally didn’t influence the transaction; NTV was passed into the hands of Gazprom-Media, which later fell under control of Yury Kovalchuk who is considered a close friend of Putin. Eleven years have passed and Vladimir Putin has returned to power, ignoring mass protests [...]

A scandal is flaring in Russia as two segments for popular NTV programme “Unreal Politics” were shot and then blocked by NTV’s management. The first one subjected the leader of a pro-government youth movement Nashi and the chairman of State Committee for Youth Vasily Yakemenko to criticism. Russia’s own Paris Hilton, Kseniya Sobchak, told the Unreal Politics hosts about her attempts to interview Yakemenko in one of the most expensive restaurants in Moscow. Sobchak failed, but recorded her talk with Yakemenko and then published the interview in the Internet. The video contained her sarcastic comments of how Yakemenko’s supposed expensive tastes doesn’t correspond to his public statements about economy drive. The second item concerned President Medvedev’s visit to the journalism department of Moscow State [...]