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Reporters protest againt NTV takeover
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Angry journalists at Russia's only independent nationwide television station NTV protested on Wednesday against a takeover by a state-dominated gas firm amid reports CNN founder Ted Turner was to buy into the channel.
NTV dropped its usual programme of soap operas, films and light entertainment and showed a caption in stark white letters explaining that "in protest at the illegal attempt to change the board of NTV, only news programmes will be broadcast".
The network accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a boardroom coup by Gazprom which saw its allies take key positions and oust NTV's founder Vladimir Gusinsky.
The media magnate, fighting extradition from Spain on fraud charges, has tried to stall Gazprom's takeover plans by attracting international investment in NTV.
CNN quoted a source as saying Turner and Gusinsky had clinched an outline deal. Gusinsky's Media-Most holding company said it had no details of the accord, but the Washington Post cited sources as saying it was worth $225 million.
Alexander Kazakov, a senior Gazprom executive, told reporters the gas giant welcomed talks on the purchase of a large stake in NTV by a foreign investor, as long as no one group enjoyed majority control of the station.
President Vladimir Putin, hosting an official visit by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, made no comment on the controversy, widely seen as a test of his tolerance of dissent.
Ex-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who heads an NTV standards watchdog, said he had tried to contact Putin but he was busy. "But I will shortly get in contact with him or speak to him," Interfax quoted him as saying.
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