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Voice of America bulletins are forced off the air


MEDIA freedom in Russia came under scrutiny yesterday when it emerged that the Government had forced scores of radio stations to stop broadcasting news from the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Officials said that the changes had been ordered because the stations had violated their licences by failing to get permission to broadcast news from other sources. Staff at Radio Liberty and Voice of America, which are both funded by the US Government and produce news in Russian, have condemned the move.

Just four Russian radio stations now broadcast Radio Liberty’s news, compared with 30 last year, while Voice of America has lost all but five of its 42 Russian affiliates. Radio Liberty is thought to have angered the Kremlin last year after it interviewed Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school siege.

Tension over differing interpretations of democracy and media freedom has overshadowed Russia’s debut year as G8 president. It prompted President Putin to insist this week that there was media freedom in Russia when he took part in a live webcast designed to improve his image before the G8 summit in St Petersburg this month.

Relations between Russia and the US have been further complicated by the murder of five Russian diplomats in Iraq by a group linked to al-Qaeda. Mr Putin ordered special forces to destroy the killers raising the possibility of covert Russian operations in Iraq, something that would be unpopular in the Pentagon.