Moscow murder and TV rows expose risks for journalists

1.00pm - By RON POPESKI

MOSCOW - The murder of a US journalist and an overhaul of top news programmes at the closest thing Russia has to an independent television channel show the post-Soviet price to be paid for issuing unwelcome news.

Gunmen mowed down Paul Khlebnikov at the weekend two months after, as editor of Russian Forbes magazine, he published a list of the country's 100 wealthiest businessmen.

Colleagues and police remained stumped over who might have been behind it, beyond linking the attack, similar to contract killings of the 1990s, to his "professional activity".

The big changes occurred at NTV, taken over by state gas giant Gazprom in President Vladimir Putin's first term. A new management team has been put in place, one popular presenter was sacked, another given a new job and two news programmes axed.

Liberals saw the events as two sides of the same coin in terms of making journalists adapt to post-communist reality.

"If a journalist does not behave in appropriate fashion, he is either dismissed ... or promoted and therefore taken off the air," said Alexei Venediktov, director of Ekho Moskvy radio, the country's most prominent independent news source.

"If this proves impossible -- as in the case of an American publication -- he gets killed and the rest are intimidated."

With television the most influential news source and two channels under direct state control, Venediktov described events at NTV as "a four-year version of the Spanish garrotte".

Critics say the dismissal last month of NTV presenter Leonid Parfyonov after he aired an interview with the widow of a slain Chechen rebel and the reassignment of talk show host Savik Shuster meant NTV's small room for manoeuvre had been squeezed.

NTV gets little sympathy from state television. Reporters there are unabashed in their reluctance to criticise the Kremlin, though they may call ministers to account.

"I see nothing dreadful at NTV. The truth is the channel has gone a bit stale in terms of ratings and income," said Vitaly Trubitskoi, political observer at the Rossiya state channel.

"The time was ripe for tough measures. The main thing is to maintain stability among the big three channels."

The issue of press freedom against the background of decades of censorship became an issue in Putin's re-election in March. Two state channels were accused of giving an inordinate amount of favourable air time to the Kremlin chief.

NTV staff, still reeling from the turmoil of Gazprom taking over from an "oligarch" in 2001, saw things as sheer survival. NTV's new chief, more experienced in news management than his predecessor, was more likely to keep them in their jobs.

"I understand this as the last chance," a source close to NTV told Reuters. "At least the channel is partly independent. The framework of freedom of speech is clearly understood -- what you can think and what you can say."

Outspoken criticism of the pro-Kremlin party on the eve of an election is certainly to be avoided. An accumulation of negative news may also incite Kremlin action.

Television stations are well advised to ignore all but the biggest attacks in Chechnya.

Analyst Boris Makarenko of the Institute for Political Technologies said the murder of Khlebnikov, "a man not involved in any Russian settling of accounts", threatened the entire profession.

Those uncertain of or uneasy with the new rules may choose to abandon that profession for calmer waters.

- REUTERS