The owner is looking for public television

The discussion of the next project to create public television in parliament aroused great interest - I don’t remember that people known to all viewers of the country stood in the aisles of the Small Hall of the State Duma. To Vladimir Pozner, Igor Ugolnikov and Vladimir Semago, of course, there was a place in the hall - but not in the presidium: there were members of the United Russia faction, the leading parliamentary hearings Sergey Zheleznyak, Lyudmila Shvetsova and later the chairman of the Duma committee on culture Stanislav Govorukhin.

The new concept of public television is developed in the bowels of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications. The head of the Ministry of Communications Igor Schegolev and his deputy Alexander Maslov spoke about possible mechanisms for creating public television.

The polemic note was brought by the chairman of the Council for Human Rights under the President Mikhail Fedotov :

- In the concept of the Ministry of Communications, I think everything is correct, only a small amendment - but a fundamental nature. The Concept of the Ministry of Communications speaks of a program policy that meets the interests of society. The program policy must meet the interests of the development of civil society. Not just the interests of society, but the interests of development. Public television is a developing television, this is television of modernization, modernization of consciousness, modernization of society, and not a conservative television, ”said former Minister of Press Mikhail Fedotov.

Public television, meanwhile, may appear in Russia very soon-such a conclusion could be made from the speeches of the member of the Public Chamber Dmitry Biryukov (part-time-the president of the Gazprom Media Holding Publishing House 7 days):

- The Public Chamber in fact today can implement the project of public television on full scale. The Public Chamber has 66 regional branches, it has the opportunity to choose the most famous people in the field, in the center. Plus, to control everything, how to feel the rhythm of life in every region, to feel how it all happens, ”said Dmitry Biryukov, speaking at parliamentary hearings. - If the Public Chamber is granted the right to form a public council and observation council, well, or there is a trusteeship, then, probably, it will be the most durable body that can answer the main question of the population: will we have public television or not? Moreover, we do not need additional funds, additional resources for this, because we have all this, ”Biryukov assured.

On the eve of the parliamentary hearings, the deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma Lyudmila Shvetsova in an interview with the party site said: "A strong personnel team should be engaged in the creation of public television, which will be able to implement civil society requests." Perhaps she had in mind the Public Chamber - among her members, for example, such masters of her craft as Tina Kandelaki and Sergey Markov.

At the same time, one cannot but clarify: the leaders of the Ministry of Communications said they were ready to provide the new TV channel with one of the meter frequencies.

It soon became clear that the Public Chamber has competitors. Here is what another participant in the parliamentary hearings, a member of the Communist Party faction in the State Duma, director Vladimir Bortko :

- The first question: why? Why public television? Who needs it? If the stars light up, someone needs it. To whom? Why? For what? Why now? We are told: "Requests of society." That is, this is actually a response to well -known events on Bolotnaya and so on . What do participants in protest rallies want? New parties, elections of governors, public television. What drives people, those 71 percent who declared the need for public television? First of all, dissatisfaction with the existing. But who will lead television? By the way, who appointed the Public Chamber? We represent the State Duma here, those people who have chosen the people. We would like to participate in public television mainly the State Duma and the Party presented in the State Duma, ”said Vladimir Bortko.

Meanwhile, among the main speakers and even participants in the discussion of the public television project, representatives of the unsystematic political opposition were not noticeable, which is also part of society, and there were no noticeable civilian activists, whose role in the public consciousness has recently increased.

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  Vitaly Kamyshev

  Radio Office of Radio Liberty. Cooperates with the radio station since 1997. He worked in the journal The New Times, the newspaper Arguments and Facts, was a regular author of the newspaper Russian Thought (Paris) in 1995-2000. Kamyshevv@rferl.org