Coverage Opportunity

What:		Evgeny Kiselev, who has been described as the Walter Cronkite of Russia, anchors his news program on the NTV television network, Russia’s first independent television network. As a political analyst and prominent journalist, he will be discussing the freedom of speech in Russia, oil politics, the oligarchs, President Putin, as well as other topics affecting Russia today.   In a 2001 interview on PBS, in which Kiselev discussed Putin and the freedom of the press in Russia, the well-known journalist told of how, as co-founder of NTV television, he was offered $300 million in cash to sell NTV and leave the country. He and his partners refused the offer, because, as he states, “There are things in this country, in Russia, more important than money; for example, freedom of the press. So you can treat us as helpless idealists, but we really believe that we have a mission, and we have to carry on, period.”
When:		Wednesday, November 8, 2006, at 7:00 p.m.
Where:		Washington Room, Mather Hall, on the Trinity College campus
Background:		Evgeny Kiselev has been covering domestic and international politics for different Russian media — mostly major TV stations — for almost 20 years. In 1992, he became the most well-known journalist in Russia when he started to produce and host “Itogi” (“Wrap-Up”), a weekly current affairs show that successfully ran on different channels for more than a decade. “Itogi” was considered by many to be the most influential television program of its kind in Russia. In 1993, Kiselev joined a group of leading Russian television professionals to start Independent TV (NTV), the first Russian privately-owned and independent broadcasting company. In 1995 in New York, Kiselev was awarded the prestigious International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists for coverage of the war in Chechnya by his “Itogi” television show. In 2000, shortly before Vladimir Putin’s election to the Russian presidency, Kiselev became general director of NTV. In April 2001, he was forced to leave NTV after a hostile takeover by Gasprom, the Russian state gas monopoly, which was widely reported at the time, and viewed by many, as politically engineered by the new government in order to change the independent editorial line of NTV. More than 100 leading NTV journalists left the station in an unprecedented show of protest and support. At present, Kiselev hosts a weekly current affairs program on Echo of Moscow, the leading radio station in the Russian capital. He also writes a column for Vedomosti, an established Russian daily jointly published by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. He contributes to the Russian editions of Forbes and GQ magazines, and also writes regularly for Gazeta.Ru, the leading Russian Internet newspaper.

Sponsored by the Departments of Modern Languages & Literatures, History, and Political Science, Dean of the Faculty, International Studies Program 

For more information, call (860) 297-2543. This lecture is free and open to the public.

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