New NTV Management Takes Control During Night Operation

The new management of NTV television station, appointed ten days ago by a shareholders meeting that NTV journalists claim was illegal, took control over the station's broadcasting and studios last night. Representatives of the new management changed armed guards at the company's premises and demanded all NTV journalists either to sign an agreement to work with the new managers or to resign from their jobs. NTV spokeswoman Tatyana Blinova said the managers arrived to the station's studios with special police force in an "armed hijacking" of the channel. However, witnesses said those who arrived were plain-clothed and weren't wielding guns, other media reported. NTV news anchor Marianna Maksimovskaya said she, along with some other journalists, was barred from work and refused the right to enter the television building. NTV journalists unwilling to yield to the new management's pressure said they prepare broadcasting at TNT regional television network, controlled by Media MOST. TNT is received in fewer Russia's regions than NTV. Two former prominent NTV journalists, Tatiana Mitkova and Leonid Parfyonov, who resigned from the station a week ago, reportedly will co-operate with the new managers and will put together broadcasting of the taken-over NTV.