| MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
INFORMATION AND PRESS DEPARTMENT
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32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl., 119200, Moscow G-200;
tel.: (499) 244 4119, fax: (499) 244 4112
e-mail: dip@mid.ru, web-address: www.mid.ru
DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
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15.01.2002
Regarding US State Department Statements on Situation Around TV-6 Television Channel
The TV-6 question lies in a strictly legal plane. The situation around the TV-6 Channel is, first and foremost, an economic dispute between its shareholders, which they are trying to settle in accordance with generally accepted practice through judicial bodies. Bodies of executive authority must implement a court decision and take all the follow-up actions provided by the law. By the way, TV-6 is far from the only private channel telecasting in Russia, as somebody is trying to present.
Very often, regrettably, the media and political circles of countries which consider themselves a paragon of democracy make demands on Russia that are mutually exclusive. On the one hand, they call for strengthening the democratic foundations of Russian society, in which the bedrock principle is that of the separation of powers, and for ensuring not in words but in deed the independence of judicial authority. On the other hand, an appeal is being made that we influence specific judicial decisions connected with the activities of particular entities or individuals. In fact this is an appeal to put pressure on judicial authority, which is inadmissible.
Beyond any doubt, here we're witnessing an exercise of the double standard in approach to issues of media freedom in Russia.
That's exactly how one can comment on the US State Department statements being heard for several days now on the question of TV-6.
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