"State to Fund Local Media"The media in Russia has been controlled by local governments for decades, but... what's this? President Dmitry Medvedev has just ordered regional governments to sell these networks and companies to the federal government so as to "clean up" corruption and debts in the regional areas. The federal government plans to fund the media sources through a "transition period" until privatization can be fully established.
Medvedev comes off as quite a hero in this call to action, but I think his intentions might be different than what they appear to be. If all goes as stated, then bravo! But it looks to me like the federal government will have direct control over the media for the time being, and that will certainly have some negative side effects. If the state enjoys the power too much, privatization may be farther off than when they started.
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