Soul Of A Newer Machine

Michael Hedges November 7, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Pressure on media executives is often insurmountable. Even those with impeccable records of service are called to painful duty. Rising to that call can be hugely rewarding. Failing, quite often, is the road to perdition.

It is of little surprise when a media worker in Russia is summarily dismissed for stepping outside accepted narratives. Reporters and editors step over the ever-hardening line at their peril. When Ekho Moskvy reporter and talk-show host Alexander Plyuschev posted to Twitter a rather indelicate comment last week his employment was abruptly terminated.

Ekho Moskvy director general Yekaterina Pavlova summoned Mr. Plyuschev to a meeting last Thursday (November 6) at which he was asked to explain the Twitter message as well as the broadcast he hosted in late October with reporters covering events in eastern Ukraine that earned the station an official warning from Russian Federation media and telecom regulator Roskomnadzor. “I came on time,” he said on Ekho Moskvy later that day. “There were a lot of people.”

He refused and was fired, told the decision came from the shareholders and chairman of the board of directors. Guards at the Ekho Moskvy studios building were instructed to bar him from entry. By telephone he informed chief editor Alexei Venediktov of the proceedings, who had not been consulted by either Ms Pavlova or Gazprom Media president Mikhail Lesin.

Radio channel Ekho Moskvy, which has national distribution, is held in esteem by many Western media watchers and some Russians as one of the very few news outlets daring to criticize. It is principally owned by Gazprom Media, directly owned by Gazprombank and, ultimately, state energy company Gazprom. Ekho Moskovy’s minority shareholders are its editorial staff, Mr. Venediktov holding an 18% share and a board seat. Under the company charter the only the chief editor can sign or cancel editorial staff employment contracts. This has given chief Mr. Venediktov, who has worked for the station since its founding in 1990, certain leverage to keep indirect censorship away from the door.

That liberty may have run its course. “As far as I’m concerned, this order has no force,” said Mr. Venediktov. “Alexander Plyuschev remains a journalist of Ekho Moskvy.” Officially, the State employment tribunal will now decide whether or not the dismissal is legal.

For his part, Mr. Lesin said “lawyers will figure it out,” quoted by Russian news portal RBC (November 6). He also said that “quite probably” Mr. Venediktov will have to resign if he doesn’t agree with the decision to fire Mr. Plyuschev. “I warned him that if he did not take this decision, I will,” said Mr. Lesin to Forbes Russia (November 6). “He said he would think about it.”

Mr. Lesin came to Gazprom Media a year ago directly from the Russian Information Ministry. One of his first moves was to remove Ekho Moskvy director general Yuri Fedutinov, replacing him with Ms Pavlova, who had been a deputy director at Voice of Russia. Mr. Venediktov called it a “totally political decision.” Ms Pavlova’s tenure is also under question, reported vedomosti.ru (October 7), because of falling ad sales related to new Russian regulations and international sanctions affecting sales house Video International (VI), which Mr. Lesin founded. Richly rewarded for service to the Russian Federation, Mr. Lesin relocated family members to the United States, as custom dictates, choosing Beverly Hills.

Mr. Venediktov and other minority shareholders approached the majority shareholder to acquire Ekho Moskvy earlier this year. It was rejected. Two years earlier he resigned from the Ekho Moskvy board over political interference in editorial decisions.

“I’m not quitting,” said Mr. Venediktov, who was reelected to the Ekho Moskvy board and position as chief editor in March. “And nobody breaks the (employment) law as long as I’m the smiling chief editor. I can’t throw Mikhail Yuryevich (Lesin) into such a quandary.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media in Russia

Media in Russia is big business and big politics. Media companies are consolidating as they move into new media and new territories. At the same time independence is still questioned. It's all changing. ftm looks at media in Russia and its neighbors, includes Resources, 124 pages. PDF file (January 2012)

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