Russia halts BBC's FM broadcasts in Moscow

[demoleft]

Source: Reuters - The Irish Times

The BBC's Russian-language Service was taken off the FM frequency it had been using to broadcast to Moscow on Friday, the second such stoppage in nine months.

The BBC said in a statement the Russian FM radio station that had been re-broadcasting its Russian Service programmes had been told by licensing authorities to stop or risk being taken off the air itself.

The move comes two months after a round of diplomatic expulsions brought relations between London and Moscow to their lowest point in years.

Almost all of Russia's broadcast media is deferential in its coverage of the Kremlin. Critics of President Vladimir Putin say his officials have sidelined dissenting voices on radio and television, though he denies this.

Read more: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0819/breaking1.htm

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I have it in today's news and shared it with you. Sorry in case it is old news. I had missed it.

[Igel]

1. Hadn't seen it.

It was new to me, and 'new' is the operative part of the word 'news'.

Doesn't add much 'new', though. He's been sidelining critics, mostly not by having their stations taken off the air, but by having them muzzle themselves. Only if a critic or news source is insistent about not being at least neutral wrt Putin is s/he silenced or the media source shut down. (This is a common enough occurrence worldwide, to be honest, even if it's hard to notice in the absence of formal station or newspaper closures. It's obvious in Belorussia, not so obvious elsewhere.)

[LiberalEsto]

2. Funny, because BBC was so pro-Russia

during the confrontation between Russia and Estonia over relocation of a bronze memorial statue back in May. In some articles the BBC printed everything Russian officials said, and didn't bother to contact the Estonian government for its side of the story.

Having worked as a newspaper reporter for 25 years, I wrote to BBC and complained about the lack of journalistic balance in their articles. They never replied, but the articles became a tiny bit less biased in favor of Russia.


Putin is establishing himself as another Stalin.

[TheLastMohican]

3. That's what you like to believe

I think he is doing the right thing by sticking the brits with their own hypocrisy right into their face. Brown has to be smarter than this to demand Russia change its Constitution on extradiction.
Putin had a field day with this explaining how Russia is not a former "colony" to bow to the wishes of the British Crown.

[LiberalEsto]

4. And Estonia is no longer a Russian colony

to bow to the wishes of a Stalin clone like Putin

[Henny Penny]

5. Yes... we have your point...

ridiculous as it is.

[LiberalEsto]

6. Excuse me but

what is so ridiculous about it?

It's very real to me and my family.
Estonia was devastated by the post WW2 Soviet occupation. Tens of thousands of people were rounded up and shipped to labor camps in Siberia. My mother's landlord and his wife were among them. Why? Because he helped lead a boy scout troop. While the Russians were arresting them, my mother slipped out the back door, ran to get her mother, and fled the country.
My father was wanted by the Nazis for his political views and fled the country during the Nazi occupation. They met at a refugee camp after the war, and were very lucky to come to America instead of getting shipped to the Soviet Union.

My aunt lives in Estonia. From 1945 to 1991 she could not attend church, sing Estonian songs in public, own a flag, or speak freely. Her letters to us were censored, and vice versa. They lived in constant fear of being reported and arrested, and their fear had a genuine basis.

Russia flooded Estonia with Russian citizens. They took all the good jobs, made the Estonians do menial work, and forced everyone to speak, read and write in Russian. Estonians use the Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic, so it was difficult for them. There were no typewriters that used the Estonian/Latin alphabet. School was taught in Russian. They tried to eradicate the Estonian language and culture. Now the remaining Russians are whining because Estonia is asking them to learn a little basic Estonian in order to become citizens. Russians love to dish it out, but they can't take their own medicine.

Ironically, I'm 1/4 Russian too, but I find that what Putin is doing is reprehensible. Why is he menacing former republics? Why does he fire missiles into Georgian territory, and threaten Estonia? He should take care of the poverty and inequality and the alcoholism in his own country instead of planning a new Russian empire.

[ohio2007]

9. revising history is the national pastime LiberalEsto

it needs changed to fit talking points. Facts are so cumbersome to life today. So whatever happened during that mythical ancient time some have been rumored to label it the Cold War needs white washed and hung out to dry like a Baltic nation.

My comments are sarcasm LiberalEsto. Obviously, I've never walked a mile in your shoes but
I know your families footprints did exist.

Your post was a good read.

[Henny Penny]

11. I am very sorry to hear that your family has suffered in this way.

However to say that Putin = Stalin is patent nonsense.

[Psephos]

8. Perhaps you could express your opinion without mocking L.E.

Ridiculing someone whose opinion doesn't match your own is the least effective rhetorical technique. Not offering arguments of your own is the second-least effective rhetorical technique. Perhaps that explains why it is the choice of teenagers and mobs.

L.E. has direct family experience in matters Russian and Estonian and offers a valid and interesting perspective. You offer condescension and no perspective.

[Henny Penny]

12. "Perhaps that explains why it is the choice of teenagers and mobs."

Are you mocking me whilst expressing your opinion?

Aah the irony.

I don't mean to mock LE but to suggest that Putin is as bad as Stalin, a monster that killed millions, is clearly nonsense, interesting background or not.

[Psephos]

13. Further irony lies in your method of participation on a progressive board

Where, presumably, we feel that each person deserves a modicum of respect.

I was not mocking you. I would have addressed my comment directly to you if I were. The thought crosses my mind, however, that you seem more enthusiastic about dishing out sardonic comments than about receiving them.

I don't understand what motivates those who belittle their fellows on this board because (horrors!) they have expressed a different opinion. We need to get past the idea that having different opinions is license to hurl mean-spirited comments at people we've never even met.

I actually concur with your opinion regarding Stalin vs. Putin, but one must be concerned with trends as well as with the current moment. Projecting the "evolution" of Putin forward does not yield idyllic visions.



I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from
the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely,
I am ungrateful to these teachers.
- Kahlil Gibran

[ohio2007]

7. Shutting down a radio ..like a TV station needs to be done every now and then

revoking a broadcast liscense is a legal process under the law........

/sarc

I'm sure the music beamed into Moscow was way to decadent just the same......

ANd the lies they refer to as news !!!!

pull the plug

[Psephos]

10. Perhaps Putin analyzed the results of the recent South American field test of this technique

As in the South American episode, it has not proven difficult to find those who defend the practice in the name of democracy. <cough cough>

"Free speech for me, but not for thee."