(H/T – Drudge)
Tidbits from a New York Times story on the state takeover of what was Russia’s largest radio news network, the Russian News Service:
- At least 50% of the stories on the network about Russia must be “positive”.
- The United States is to be refered to as “the enemy” by that network’s reporters.
- Between the government itself, its national natural gas company, Gazprom, and various “front” groups, all 3 of the national TV networks, most of the larger newspapers, and an increasing number of radio networks are government-controlled.
- The Russian Parliament recently banned “extremism” in politics (widely defined as anything critical of the government). The police and prosecutors are already taking full advantage of that, with the KGB…er, FSS questioning former chess champion and opposition politician Garry Kasparov for 4 hours after he gave an interview on the sole surviving independent national radio network, and Moscow prosecutors using a freshly-minted “political vandalism” law to persecut…er, prosecute an activist who posted critical remarks about a member of Parliament on a web site.
