NEWSLINK: Putin and the media – Dreams about Russia – Beyond the spectacle of the Sochi Olympics is a crackdown on Russia’s media

[“Putin and the media – Dreams about Russia – Beyond the spectacle of the Sochi Olympics is a crackdown on Russia’s media” – The Economist – February 15, 2014 – economist.com/news/europe/21596580-beyond-spectacle-sochi-olympics-crackdown-russias-media-dreams-about-russia]

The Economist reports on concerns over media freedoms in Russia, including actions taken in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics:

Just as Vladimir Putin’s greatest project [the Sochi Olympics] has been protected from terrorist attack by a “ring of steel”, so the president himself is protected from political subversion by a virtual “ring of steel” surrounding the media. Channel One has … dressed its presenters in Russian sports uniforms. Any critic of the Olympics has been branded an enemy. Editors have been warned that carping reports would threaten their publication’s survival.

… the state-dominated media have been purged … [beginning] with RIA Novosti, the state news agency, which was always loyal to the Kremlin but in a subtly intelligent way.  … [Its head] was replaced by Dmitry Kiselev, a television presenter whose venomous anti-American and homophobic rants would have been extreme even in Soviet times. RIA Novosti itself has been lumped with Russia Today, a foreign-language propaganda channel. The consolidation of media assets coincides with … the penalising of free speech.

On the eve of the Olympics, Mr Kiselev’s masters launched a campaign against Dozhd, a private cable and internet TV channel.  …

Click here for full article: economist.com/news/europe/21596580-beyond-spectacle-sochi-olympics-crackdown-russias-media-dreams-about-russia

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