TEFI will live

On February 21, Mikhail Shvydkoi, President of the Academy of Russian Television, announced his resignation from his post and proposed not to hold TEFI-2013. But the very next day he disavowed his statement

It all started on Monday, February 18, when the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company announced its withdrawal from the academy - the organizer of TEFI. And on the 21st, Channel One announced the refusal to nominate their work at TEFI-2013 “due to the absence of major competitors”. And then - Shvydkoy's statement ...

The TEFI Award and the TV Academy were born at the very beginning of the new state, when the Union collapsed, the floodgates opened and a huge number of new ideas, new faces, new channels, new programs appeared. This happened all over Russia, in small and large cities. It was then that the television people had their own academy.

At first, everything was quite democratic, the television people were pleased that it was the professionals who assessed the quality of the programs. Then everyone was interested in everything to be honest, the time was such - honest.

Over time, the academy grew, academics from the main channels appeared, who began to vote corporately, and it was necessary to figure out how to get around this. Up to the fact that they decided to vote right in front of the audience, live - the last vote was like that. Therefore, small producers, regional programs, programs of the Kultura channel very often won, where the audience interest rating was low, but they were brilliant in quality.

The big channels didn’t like it, friction began, some kind of internal discord began. The first of the founders of TEFI, having quarreled with the academy, was NTV, then, in fact, VGTRK. Of course, when the main prize for news is won not by the Rossiya channel, not by the Vremya program, not by NTV, but by others, this is honest from the point of view of the profession, but terribly insulting to the big channels - they believed that this was unfair. And this was possible precisely because of the independence of the academicians.

What happened now? I think television and everything around it has become annoyed with the Anatomy of a Protest scandal, which a normal person cannot consider journalism and television, but considers propaganda and fake. There was a lot of “ordering” on all channels, the news turned into propaganda, the newsmaker is actually one person. It became increasingly difficult to reconcile different interests, everything went haywire. So the idea came up to close TEFI.

I don't think this is correct. Yes, television has degraded, and the award has degraded along with it. And yet it will be very insulting and pitiful if TEFI dies. Then TV producers and professionals will have no reference points and criteria at all. And recently, many new digital channels have appeared. Last year, the Dozhd TV channel received the award. This TV has a future. For those who make normal, honest TV for the audience, and not to please the authorities, TEFI is necessary. We are used to destroying everything to the ground. And we just need to separate the state from television.

The television academy must be preserved. If only because it is impossible to allow people like Karaulov with Pushkov and Leontiev with Shevchenko to head television and begin to dictate their own rules. By the way, they have never received TEFI. And they will be the first to rejoice if the academy is gone.