Ex-premier wins Russian broadcasting license

MOSCOW -- A Russian commission awarded a TV license on Wednesday to an unusual alliance of political heavyweights and journalists seeking to preserve an independent voice on the country's increasingly state-dominated airwaves.

The license became available after Russia's only major nongovernment broadcaster, TV6, was forced off the air in a complicated legal battle with a minority shareholder that had ties to the government.

A nine-member federal commission voted to give the TV license to a team including former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov and Arkady Volsky, the influential head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

"It was unanimous," said Press Minister Mikhail Lesin.

Most Russians depend on television for their news, and in post-Soviet Russia, running a network has meant significant political power -- making Wednesday's contest extremely important.

The winning team, known as Media-Sotsium, beat out 12 competitors for the license, including former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

The team was reported to have the Kremlin's backing to replace the small, independent TV6, yanked off the air in January.

Many saw TV6's demise as a Kremlin-orchestrated attack on independent media. Kiselyov, who had led TV6, pledged to return to the air, but some analysts viewed his alliance with such powerful political figures as another attempt to stifle a critical journalistic team.

"Unfortunately, it looks like this alliance has been orchestrated by the government to give Kiselyov's team as little influence as possible," said Oleg Panfilov, who runs a press watchdog group in Moscow.

The Kremlin has consistently denied that it played any role in the media upheaval that has hit Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power.

Since last spring, Russians have lost their only two nationwide independent television networks, both of which were controlled by tycoons who fell out of favor with the Kremlin. Russia's premier nongovernment broadcaster, NTV, was absorbed by government-controlled gas giant Gazprom.

Many of NTV's feistiest journalists sought refuge at TV6, which had been majority owned by outspoken Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky. TV6 was taken off the air for failing to turn a profit following a legal battle with a shareholder -- a pension fund linked to the government.

Primakov, Russia's prime minister from September 1998 until May 1999, called the awarding of TV6's license a chance to revive independent media in Russia.

"We have to create a real independent television station without pressure from the state, without pressure from oligarchs, without any kind of pressure," he said on RTR television.

Igor Yakovenko, head of Russia's Journalists Union, said that would be difficult.

"They won't have any very serious, absolute independence from the Kremlin," he was quoted as telling Interfax news agency. "But they will be more independent than all the other federal channels."

Lesin said the group will take over full control of the station in May. Currently, the station is showing sports full-time under a special arrangement worked out by the government to avoid blacking out the channel completely.