VOA and RFE/RL vilified in Russia
In Russia, we are seeing increased vilification of independent media. In February Russian state TV showed an anti-American film amidst wall-to-wall Olympics coverage. The film included comments that RFE/RL was created as an agreement between the U.S. administration and former Nazi officials. This is on the heels of denying a visa to distinguished journalist David Satter who has been an advisor to RFE/RL. In addition, Dozhd TV, which carries some programming from VOA, has been pushed off cable and satellite TV channels.