Industry Figure Tom Chappell

You may have heard, earlier this week, that the Russian government had recently taken over Russia’s until-then largest independent radio network.

Most of the reports that I saw focused on a new requirement that 50% of all news about Russia be positive. But there were few reports of some of the other conditons, which are even more alarming:

In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.

Read the Full Story in The New York Times:
“50% Good News Is the Bad News in Russian Radio”
April 22, 2007