Russian TV station off the air

Kiselyov joined TV6 from NTV

MOSCOW, Russia -- The last independent, national TV station in Russia was taken off the air on Tuesday by authorities after a months-long legal battle.

The TV6 station was ordered closed in January after Lukoil Grant, a pension fund partially owned by the Russian state and a minority shareholder in the station, filed a bankruptcy suit claiming that its debts were greater than its assets.

Finally, at midnight on Monday the station lost its signal including its satellite feed to local broadcasters in the province.

The liquidation of TV6 has stirred concern about media freedom in Russia, as the Kremlin is given a monopoly of broadcasting for the first time since the Soviet era.

It has silenced one of few Russian broadcasters, Boris Berezovsky, the owner of TV6, who had previously criticised the Russian military tactics in Chechnya as well as corruption scandals in the Kremlin.

Last year another independent broadcast station, NVT, was taken over by state-owned natural gas monopoly, Gazprom. Berezovsky invited NVT's staff to join him at TV6.

Russian authorities claim to have nothing to do with actions against the two independent stations and maintain that their fate was strictly related to business matters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is, however, said not to deny that he dislikes Berezovsky and former NTV owner Vladimir Gusinsky.

TV6's general director Yevgeny Kiselyov told Ekho Moskvy (Moscow) radio, "It looks like some kind of coup ... The authorities today showed that their single goal is to gag us."

Leading Russian liberals also criticised the closure of TV6 for limiting the public's access to information. Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent member of parliament, told Ekho Moskvy, "This is horrible news for all of us. In Russia there is no independent television station."

The closure of the TV station, which launched popular new programming such as Russia's first Big Brother-like reality TV programme, is "a huge political mistake on behalf of the president," Boris Nemtsov, head of the free market party Union of Right-wing Forces told Ekho Moskvy.

During the TV6 case the West was concerned that freedom of the media was under attack yet again. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on January 12 that his country was urging the Russian government that TV6 get a "full and fair hearing."

The Russian Court's decision was final, though TV6 can appeal to the Constitutional Court of Russia.

Interfax news agency, quoting a source at TV6, said on January 11 the station plans to appeal against the court ruling through the Supreme Arbitration Court in the European Court of Human Rights.