Financial crisis: World round-up

Several columnists claim some outlets are understating the crisis

Commentators at some of Russia's more liberally minded newspapers have accused colleagues elsewhere in the media of failing to give the public the full picture about the state of the Russian economy.

In recent days several columnists have claimed that some outlets, and in particular the leading television channels, are deliberately understating the domestic impact of the global financial crisis.

As a result, they argue, most Russians are not fully aware of the potential implications for their jobs, savings and pensions.

The authorities, however, are adamant that the main TV channels are perfectly aware of what's going on in Russian society.

'Hushing up'

The overwhelming majority of Russians - some polls suggest 80% - rely on the three principal television networks for their news.

It is these three channels - the state-controlled Channel One and Rossiya, and NTV, owned by the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom - that are being accused by some commentators of hiding the economic realities from their audiences.

After share prices on Moscow's two main stock exchanges fell sharply at the start of last week, the Vedomosti business broadsheet said that the channels had largely ignored the story and were "hushing up the news".

We can't issue orders to the mass media, be they electronic or print Vladimir Putin

The danger, Vedomosti said, was that at some point Russians would find themselves waking up to a "painful reality" when "they learn that their pay has been cut or that it's impossible to obtain a loan".

Similar views have been expressed by Gazeta.ru, a popular news portal that has a reputation for criticising official policy.

The website says that Russians remain ignorant of the economic uncertainties they face, a state of affairs it has sarcastically described as "the main achievement of our colleagues from the Russian TV channels".

Another opposition outlet, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has said that pro-Kremlin officials and media outlets are conspiring to persuade Russians that the economic turmoil will not affect them, while in reality Russia's stock exchanges are being regularly suspended.

'Responsible people'

The contrast with the official view is stark, as Vladimir Putin, once president, now prime minister and still comfortably Russia's most popular politician, made clear in recent remarks on the role of the media.

Mr Putin told university students and academics in St Petersburg that "we can't issue orders to the mass media, be they electronic or print".

It would be wrong, he added, to suggest that "the people who run the main channels don't react to the events happening in the country and don't see what is happening in society".

He added: "They are responsible people and are trying to improve the situation."

Vedomosti was one paper to acknowledge that, despite its own concerns about media coverage, "the crisis needs to be reported in a responsible fashion".

Some liberal journalists, however, remain unconvinced.

According to the St Petersburg Times, Vladimir Varfolomeyev, a senior editor at the Ekho Moskvy radio station, reported on his blog last week that the Kremlin had instructed all the major television channels to avoid words such as "financial crisis" and "collapse".

The paper added that, while NTV declined to comment on the story, both Channel One and Rossiya had denied they were receiving instructions and insisted that, on the contrary, "there were no limits to what they could report".

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.