State controls media – Russian Union of Journalists secretary

(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 18, 2013) Boris Reznik, secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists and a State Duma deputy, believes negative tendencies are emerging in Russian journalism.

“The situation in information policies is worsening,” Reznik said at the tenth congress of the Russian Union of Journalists on Thursday.

Specifically, Reznik said that “our media legislation needs further improvement.”

“We have a new edition of the law on the mass media. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get it adopted for four years. It is lost someone in the presidential administration,” Reznik said.

“The state is virtually manipulating the mass media by giving petty cash to some publications and is controlling everyone,” he said.

Reznik also addressed the economic state of media organizations, saying they should stay entitled to tax concessions, with the exception of erotic publications.

Reznik told State Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak, who was in the session hall, referring to Zheleznyak’s proposal to abolish VAT concessions for media organizations and increase the VAT from 10% to 18%: “You shouldn’t revise what the president said.”

Reznik also disagreed with Sergei Mitrofanov, chairman of the State Duma committee on information, who said that “journalism is business.”

“They gave us freedom of speech, and officials have given themselves freedom not to hear anything,” Reznik said.