Are our mass media still independent?

Leader: Alexandra.

┘Raf Shakirov resigned last Monday as the editor of Izvestia, which provided some of the best coverage of the Beslan Hostage crisis. It is said by many sources that the Kremlin demanded his ouster as the newspaper`s coverage of terrorist attacks was too explicit

..The first pictures of what has happened in Beslan on Sept. 3 were broadcast by international media while our state channels didn`t stop their programming. The only chance for Russians to understand what was going was Ekho Moskvy or Internet.

Under suspicious circumstances , two prominent Moscow journalists, Andrey Babitsky and Anna Politlovskaya, known for their critical coverage of the military campaign in Chechnya failed to get to North Osetia to cover the hostage crisis in Beslan. 

Babitly was detained at the airport and Politkovskaya was poisoned in the plain.

 Source: The Moscow Times

Questions for discussion:

• Can we consider our mass media being independent ?
• In what way do you usually get news? Are you satisfied with this source of information?