On state TV in Russia and terrorist acts by the state

[Natalia Pylypiuk]

Greetings!  The following two articles might be of interest to students
of the Russian media.
N.P.
**********
(1)  The Real Practical Joke Is on State TV Viewers
By Irina Petrovskaya
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/02/009.html

Excerpt:
 >> Our life has come to resemble a practical joke lately. But we -- and
not the celebrities -- are the real victims. Take state television
coverage of the Ukrainian election, for example. For months, their
staff propagandists frightened us with stories about Viktor Yushchenko,
whose victory, we were told, would directly threaten not just the
territorial integrity of Ukraine but of Russia as well. Without a
thought for their own gastric well-being, reporters in the field told
us in detail what the glutton Yushchenko had eaten to make himself so
sick.

How foolish must the gullible viewer now feel as he watches the news on
those same stations and sees President Vladimir Putin meeting with the
very same Yushchenko whom state television had portrayed as the devil
incarnate. I would note that no one from those stations has ever
thought of apologizing to the people of Ukraine, not to mention the
viewers they misled for so long. Or to the pensioners whom they duped
with reports asserting  that everyone would live better following the
replacement of social benefits with cash payments.<<

(2)  Asylum decision suggests that US patience with Putin is wearing
thin
Simon Tisdall, Wednesday February 2, 2005, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1403682,00.html

  Excerpt:
 >>Human Rights Watch said recently that while Mr Putin "continues to
present himself as a believer in democracy and human rights, by his
re-election in 2004 both the political opposition and independent
television had been obliterated".

  Yelena Bonner, widow of the celebrated communist-era dissident Andrei
Sakharov, has spoken up for Ms Morozov and other government opponents
who remain in Russia.

  "Mr Trepashkin and his fellow political prisoners ... are in the same
situation as the dissidents from Soviet days," Ms Bonner wrote
recently. "Just as Mr Putin carries on the traditions of his KGB
predecessors, they stand up bravely to repression." <<



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