BBC loses last Russian FM outlet
The BBC World Service has lost its last FM radio outlet in Russia today, adding further substance to claims of a clampdown on foreign media by the country's authorities.
Russian station Bolshoye Radio today notified the BBC World Service that it plans to stop transmission of BBC programming in Russian as of this afternoon.
Bolshoye Radio was due to air BBC content at 5pm but was ordered by its owner, the financial group Finam, to pull the shows or risk being taken off air altogether.
Finam said it had received warnings from local regulatory body Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage, stipulating that all of the station's output had to be produced by Bolshoye Radio.
The BBC, which plans to appeal against the decision, said this stipulation contradicts the contract it had signed with Bolshoye Radio in February last year.
The BBC said that the concept document, on which the distribution agreement was based, stated that "60% of the station's total output will be original material produced by Bolshoye Radio".
The corporation also said that Bolshoye Radio planned to air up to 18% of foreign-produced content. The director of BBC Global News, Richard Sambrook, said: "The BBC entered into the relationship with Bolshoye Radio in good faith, and the licence was won in a competitive tender in February 2006.
"We cannot understand how the licence is now interpreted in a way that does not reflect the original and thorough concept documents."
Bolshoye Radio was due to broadcast BBC programming in Russian between 7am and 10am and 5pm and 8pm. The programmes included Utro na BBC, London View, BBSeva, hosted by Seva Novgordosev, and a new interactive programme Vam Slovo. A new current affairs programme was also being piloted for launch in September.
This is the third time BBC programming has been dropped in Russia in the last 18 months. At the end of 2006, Moscow station Radio Arsenal axed BBC programming and in early 2006 the St Petersburg station Radio Leningrad followed suit after pressure was once again applied by the local licensing authorities. This was the BBC Russian Service's last FM distribution partner station in Russia. It follows two other FM partner stations dropping BBC programmes over the last nine months.
The media has been under increasing threat in Russia in recent years, as the authorities have tightened their grip on broadcasters and newspapers.
The murders of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov and investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya have also highlighted the dangers faced by journalists in the country.
Today's decision to drop the BBC World Service, which is funded by the Foreign Office, comes a month after the UK and Russia each expelled four diplomats in a row over the assassination of London-based dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
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