Journalist In Recent Row With MPs Is Among Best Trusted On Russian TV – Poll

(RIA Novosti – January 29, 2013)

Veteran journalist Vladimir Pozner is one of the three best known and most trusted TV journalists in Russia, a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has shown, as reported by RIA Novosti news agency on 29 January, citing the organization’s website (http://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/10793). The poll was conducted on 27 January among 1,500 respondents in 100 towns and villages in 43 constituent parts of the Russian Federation.

Asked whom of the listed TV journalists they knew and being allowed to select as many names as they wanted, 86 per cent of respondents chose popular talk-show presenter on state-controlled Channel One Andrey Malakhov; 78 per cent chose Vladimir Pozner, who also works for Channel One; and 54 per cent named Leonid Parfenov, an influential TV personality largely credited with creating infotainment on Russian TV. The other TV journalists on the list were selected by the following number of respondents: Vladimir Solovyev, by 51 per cent; Aleksandr Nevzorov, by 50; Arkadiy Mamontov, by 47; Nikolay Svanidze and Aleksey Pimanov, by 46; Mikhail Leontyev, by 42; Zhanna Agalakova, by 40; Svetlana Sorokina, by 39; Marianna Maksimovskaya, by 33; Andrey Karaulov, by 28; and Aleksey Pushkov, by 20 per cent of respondents; with 6 per cent saying they did not know any of the names on the list.

Of the same list, respondents were then asked to select TV journalists whom they trusted and whose opinion they considered an authority; here too they could pick more than one name. The results were the following: Andrey Malakhov, 31 per cent; Vladimir Pozner, 28 per cent; Vladimir Solovyev, 18; Aleksey Pimanov, 17; Arkadiy Mamontov, 15; Leonid Parfenov, 12; Mikhail Leontyev, 11; Aleksandr Nevzorov and Nikolay Svanidze, 9 per cent; Marianna Maksimovskaya, Zhanna Agalakova and Svetlana Sorokina, 7 per cent; Andrey Karaulov, 6; and Aleksey Pushkov, 3 per cent, with 15 per cent of respondents saying they did not trust anyone.

Asked whether journalists working on national TV channels had the right to criticize the authorities, 64 per cent of those polled said yes, 21 per cent said no, and 15 per cent were undecided.

The rest of the poll concerned specifically Vladimir Pozner and the controversy that had surrounded him recently, when he made several derogatory remarks about the lower house of Russian parliament, the State Duma, after which MPs considered passing a law restricting journalists who have foreign citizenship (Pozner, in addition to being a Russian citizen, has US and French passports) from working on national TV channels.

Asked what their attitude to Pozner was, 41 per cent of respondents said it was positive; 33 per cent, indifferent; 6 per cent, bad; 12 per cent said they did not know anything about the man; and 7 per cent were undecided. The respondents (with the exception of the 12 per cent who said they did not know who Pozner was) were then asked whether they considered the journalist’s opinions about the current situation in Russia unbiased and just or the opposite. A total of 47 per cent of them said Pozner’s judgment was unbiased and just, while 9 per cent said the opposite, with 31 per cent undecided. Asked whether they had heard of the so-called anti-Pozner bill and whether they supported it (the question excluded the 12 per cent of respondents who said they did not know who Pozner was), 53 per cent of those polled said they had not heard of the proposed draft law; 24 per cent said they did not support it; 4 per cent said they were in favour of it; and 7 per cent were undecided.