Future for Russia's TV-6? (World).

Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin is, at press time, still hopeful that the reporting team of TV-6, which was recently shut down amid a flood of internal political turmoil, may be put in charge of temporary broadcasting on the channel, despite its having been given over to the NTV+Sport program on January 22.

Last year, LUKoil-Garant Pension Fund, which owns a 15-percent stake in TV-6, sued the Moscow Independent Broadcast Corporation (MIBC), which aired the channel. Russian Civil Code states that a company can be liquidated if its yearly balance is in the red two years in a row. TV-6 existed for four years with a negative balance, so the court ruled its lights would finally go out.

Unsatisfied with a simple appeal, officials at MIBC decided to draw attention to their cause by calling the ruling and resulting closure an infringement of freedom of speech and a threat to the Russian democratic way of life. While some might find that an overstatement, many, including Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and Union of Right Forces leader Boris Nemtsov, have publicly disapproved of the decision to shut the station down.