Press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the decision by the management of REN-TV to prevent a star presenter on the news analysis programme "24" from broadcasting.
Olga Romanova was told on November 24 that she was not going on air that night. Three security guards, none of them employed by the station, physically stopped her from entering the studio after she refused to accept the ban.
"Today in Russia, the government controls virtually every media in the country," a RSF statement said. Ren-TV is the last TV station still seen as independent. "Romanova specialised in reports critical of the authorities and in particular the Kremlin’s policy towards the broadcast sector, making this case particularly worrying."
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said it was anxious about the future of the station. "It was the last bastion of the independent broadcast media and we fear the Russian media landscape will be the poorer for it."
A few days before being ousted, Romanova was banned from presenting two topics by the head of programming. The first related to the end of the trial of a son of the defence minister, Sergey Ivanov, who killed a woman in a car accident, and the second was about the construction of a 15-million dollar crystal chapel by the architect Zurab Tsereteli, who is close to the government.
The new managing director of Ren-TV, Alexander Ordjonikidze, explained the ban on the journalist by the need to boost the channel's ratings by trying out new programming and new presenters and not to allow Olga Romanova to monopolise the evening schedule.
Ren-TV management changed in July and the Russian steel company Severstal and oil group Surgutneftegaz, both close to the government, now share 70 per cent of its stock. The third owner is German company Bertelsmann. Ordjonikidzé said that Romanova would resume work on November 28.
The presenter has, meanwhile, decided to take legal action against the security guards who prevented her from getting into the studio.
