RFE/RL Committed to Reporting in Russia, Dine Says

(October 4, 2002) The President of RFE/RL said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to revoke the 10-year-old decree that allowed the service to establish a Moscow bureau would in no way affect news coverage.

Thomas A. Dine, the President of RFE/RL, said: “We will not allow the revocation of Mr. Yeltsin’s significant policy declaration to affect our reporting of events in the Russian Federation in any way.” President Yeltsin issued his decree in recognition of RFE/RL’s contribution to Russia’s democracy and principles of freedom of the press. “We will continue to give the people of Russia accurate and balanced news and information about major occurrences inside Russia,” Dine added.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Chairman of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees RFE/RL, concurred with Dine’s statement, expressing his “confidence that our journalists will continue to do their job.”

RFE/RL is a legally registered foreign mass media outlet in the Russian Federation. Dine said he hoped that Putin’s action today would not narrow RFE/RL’s ability to operate on an equal footing with other foreign media outlets in Russia’s media environment.