Russia: editorial destiny of Kommersant still undisclosed

Posted by Elena Perotti on September 4, 2006 at 2:54 PM

When businessman Alisher Usmanov, reportedly close to the Russian government, acquired ZAO Kommersant Publishing House he claimed he was not going to interfere on editorial issues. Yet, the continuous buyouts of government critical media outlets by Kremlin-friendly capitals had raised concerns that the daily Kommersant would have journalists pull back on criticism.

Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, predicted that the only change to Kommersant's editorial policy would be the promotion in its pages of Medvedev as the next president. Medvedev is the chairman of state-owned monopoly Gazprom, Usmanov is the head of Gazprom subsidiary Gazprominvestholding. Gazprom has acquired over the last 5 years several independent-minded news organizations, including the newspapers Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda, and NTV television.

In the words of Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, "We heard exactly the same assurances when new management was installed at NTV in 2001 and at Izvestia last year, only to see drastic changes in those media outlets within weeks."

As for today, no representative of the new owner has been sent to the newspaper’s offices, and no journalists who work at Kommersant are expected to resign.

Source: Moscow Times

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