A Russian radio station is engulfed in a row amid accusations of political interference ahead of next month’s presidential election. Two senior editorial figures have been removed from the board of directors in a reshuffle at Radio Echo of Moscow, one of Russia’s few independent media outlets. One of the ousted directors, Chief Editor Alexei Venediktov, sees the hidden hand of the Kremlin. “It’s quite possible that someone in those Kremlin towers is trying even before the presidential election to take control of the coverage of what comes afterwards, just in case. That’s a possibility,” he said. Venediktov says he will remain the Chief Editor of Radio Echo, because under the radio’s charter the editor is elected by journalists. However, according to some reports, the Prosecutor's Office has already launched an investigation into whether or not Radio Echo's charter is compliant with the law. Last month Venediktov clashed with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at an industry conference. The prime minister accused the editor of slinging mud at him "from dawn to dusk." Putin’s spokesman denied the two events were connected, while the station’s major shareholder Gazprom-Media, a subsidiary of the energy giant, said the changes were administrative and not editorial.
http://www.euronews.net/2012/02/14/ousted-russian-radio-chiefs-claim-political-interference/
http://echo.msk.ru/blog/pressa_echo/858886-echo/ (video)
http://www.newstube.ru/media.aspx?mediaid=82a18fe9-b376-419f-8c4a-8979bb7d7069&linked=gazeta (video)
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/02/15/echo/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/world/europe/russia-radio-shake-up-follows-putin-criticism.html?_r=4
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