WRAP Adds bites and newsroom to judge ordering closure of TV6

(11 Jan 2002)
Moscow - 11 January, 2002
1. Russia's High Arbitration Court
2. Various interior court room
3. Judges and lawyers coming out of court room
4. Close up cameraman
5. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Geralina Lubarskaya, TV6 lawyer:
"We were representing the interests of NTV at that company's trial related to tax matters. I have to admit they had made a substantial loss. But today a new set of people are working at NTV and the company still exists despite that loss. But TV6 faces the risk of liquidation, I guess because the old NTV people came to work there."
File- April 2001
6. Various of NTV closure
Moscow- 11 January 2002
7. Ostankino television centre
8. Flag bearing TV6 logo
9. Various of TV6 newsroom
10. Set up shot TV6 correspondent Ashot Nasibov
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ashot Nasibov, TV6 Correspondent:
"Maybe I need couple days to realise what has happened. But actually it is the second time in my life that there have been some turmoils around my TV company. I have a feeling of 'deja vu'. And I think, everything what is done is for the better, but there won't be any better."
12. Press conference of TV6 journalists
13. Press cutaway
14. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vladimir Kara Murza, TV6 journalist:
"They (the court) completely ignored public opinion and the opinion of the first Russian President (Yeltsin) who recently spoke for the preservation of the independent media. TV 6 is the second company that they are trying to close. It is also shows their ignorance of foreign opinion. However they know perfectly well what the attitude is overseas regarding the trial."
15. Streets of Moscow
16. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Anatoly, (Vox Pop):
"Maybe there is a link between (Boris) Berezovsky and TV6 and if there is a link between the two then that is certainly not good. "
17. Off air TV6 news programme
18. Various shots of empty studio
STORYLINE:
The Russian courts have ruled that the country's TV6 channel, the last wide-reaching independent voice on the country's television airwaves, must close.
The case centres around a bankruptcy suit brought in May by Lukoil-Garant, a pension fund owned by Russian oil giant Lukoil, which holds a 15 percent stake in TV6.
Lukoil-Garant, which itself is minority-owned by the Russian state, demanded that the station be liquidated because its debts outweighed its assets.
However TV6 maintains it is profitable, and argues that a new law that took effect this year bans minority shareholders from bringing bankruptcy proceedings against a company.
No immediate details were available on why judges in the Higher Arbitration Court ruled against TV6.
But Geralina Lyubarskaya, a lawyer for TV6, says there appears to have been pressure on the court to hear the case as soon as possible so that a decision would be made under an old law on bankruptcy suits which would favour Lukoil-Garant.
The case has prompted international concern about media freedom in Russia.
TV6 is led by a group of journalists from NTV, a formerly independent station that was taken over last year by the state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom.
TV6's main shareholder is tycoon and one-time Kremlin insider Boris Berezovsky, who has fallen out of favour and has been living abroad to evade corruption charges he says are politically motivated.
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