Organ removal

Regional authorities want to limit funds. Mass information

At the end of last week, a regional conference “South of Russia: priorities of information strategy” took place in Sochi, almost unnoticed by the national press. The meeting went beyond corporate interests and brought together more than 80 participants, including representatives of almost all leading media outlets of the Southern Federal District. The stated topic was discussed very sluggishly and for a short time, until the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak, the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachev and the head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications Mikhail Seslavinsky appeared in the hall where the meeting was held. The topic of the discussion immediately changed: it turned to the relationship between the authorities and the press.

The presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, literally stunned the audience with the message that from January 1, 2006, power structures in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation will have the right to establish and finance only one official media outlet, in which they will publish their acts and announcements. The plenipotentiary spoke about innovation as something already predetermined. Such a decision, as Mr. Kozak said, “fits into existing legislative acts regulating the general principles of the organization of local government power.” The main reason for such a radical limitation of the capabilities of the administrations of territories, regions, cities and towns, as outlined by Dmitry Kozak, is budget savings.

As an example, the plenipotentiary cited reference data that in 2005 in the Southern Federal District alone, the authorities planned $25 million to finance various media outlets, which, given the constant complaints from the same authorities about an acute shortage of financial resources, is a fact that certainly outrages taxpayers . Moreover, according to the plenipotentiary, the costs of regional authorities on the media are directly proportional to the size of the subsidies they receive from the federal center. This, as Mr. Kozak said, indicates that regional authorities are trying to replace real economic policy with a virtual one, succeeding more in matters of self-PR, but not in practical matters.

The presidential envoy also called the current state of affairs unacceptable, in which budget funds are spent on financing only 10% of the media. Consequently, unfair competition reigns in the media market, and it is high time to include a mechanism that would provide equal conditions of existence for all mass media.

The reaction of the conference participants to Mr. Kozak’s words was rather negative, which, however, can be explained simply: mainly editors of media outlets, one way or another financed or supported financially by administrations of all levels, gathered in Sochi. The question immediately arose: what should the authorities do, for example, in Kabardino-Balkaria, where the media are published in three languages, what official newspaper should they establish - in Kabardian, Balkar or Russian?

The situation was somewhat defused by the head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Mikhail Seslavinsky, according to whom the system of state grants will be maintained for socially significant publications and media in national languages. The budget item for social advertising will also be retained. And later, on the sidelines of the conference, the heads of newspapers in the Krasnodar Territory told their colleagues about another mechanism that allows the authorities to support the media they love: there are about 50 gubernatorial programs in Kuban, and in order to cover these programs, and in fact praise the activities of the governor, the regional administration enters into agreements with certain newspapers and TV and radio companies have special agreements providing for good funding for the same social advertising.

Igor GLANIN, Sochi