The fact that NTV is a mouthpiece for neo-liberalism is hardly arguable; it is glaringly obvious. Today, with so much press on free speech in Russia, it is fitting that we ask ourselves once again: exactly what kind of "freedom of speech" (and what kind of freedom in general--or whose freedom) does NTV stand for?

If we are to interpret the word freedom using the neo-liberal definition, we can take this to mean the Social-Darwinist category of "freedom to exploit", which quite conveniently corresponds to the gentlemanly set of neo-liberalist values. Is it not this kind of freedom that those at NTV-- "the freest Russian television channel"-- are calling us to?

Meanwhile, as a letter about NTV from some St. Petersburg anarchists mentioned, NTV stubbornly refused to allow any representatives of the left on the air, smearing them all as accomplices of the Gulag system and other biting but not-very-intelligent labels.

Besides which, a slew of former NTV employees have directly accused Evgeniy Kiselyov and all of those running NTV at the top with a complete lack of tolerance. Well, what did you think! His aggressive self-assured style is in keeping with the "moral" atmosphere of modern capitalist corporations. All you need do is read some of the professional experiences of World Bank employees.

One thing is certain-- you get what you ask for. NTV's ideology has been firmly based on the idea that the market will put everything in its place without any help, optimizing, so to speak, socio-economic relations. Well it sure did! America sent over a couple of predators that happened to be even more mobile and less obviously avaricious than the notorious new Russians--Turner, Yordan…

Meanwhile, that same Yordan said in an interview on CNN that NTV received many millions in government credit. So where's the independence? Most Russian analysts agree that Gusinskiy simply got screwed by the president. The first time he bet on the right horse, the second time he didn't. But what does this have to do with freedom of speech?

Of course, to bring in the censors again would be a bad idea. In this sense, Russian society is finding itself between a rock and a hard place-- between the bureaucratic and oligarchic corporate interests-- but far removed from the needs of the average citizen. Of course, the situation with NTV can (and even must, according to the new Kremlin PR genre a la Pavlovskiy) be made an instrument, and in a way to make a big stink out of it. And it's hard not to notice.

It's obvious that the President was not born yesterday either: he's marking his territory. But this most likely has nothing to do with his worldview differing from Kiselyov's or Gusinskiy's. He just has a different resource, but the strategy is the same: "Let's get them before they get us!"

I guess we'll never see freedom. In our opinion, the only democratic and truly free resource in Russia is her working population, from professors to railroad workers. Obviously, according to the game of life (not the one in which a conscious person decides what kind of person he should be, but a predatory game, where brute force and darkness rule) no one pays attention to the interests of such a "resource". In a word-- "liberalism is a strong ideology"(M Delyagin, director of the Institute of Globalization Problems)

Yordan's now showing us movies. Last we heard, the new NTV will truly be free, since they're forced to depend only on their own funds, and getting "free" government credit is a thing of the past. Isn't that right? Well, the lesson in democracy that can be learned from all this seems to be that: NO KIND OF MONOPOLY CAN EVER PROVIDE FOR DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM.

Citizens of Russia, don't put your money on any big merger of corporate interests. If you do, the fate and interests of millions will once again depend on one "key" personality (even if he or she is defending certain rights). Fighting a system that you consider to be unjust can only be done by coordinating in small, autonomous groups, and using a diversity of strategies, so that Big Brother simply won't be able to follow you. These days, this seems especially important for modern media technology (and the finances that support it).

Remember the basic principle for liberal-capitalism: "It's better to use 1% of the labor of 100 people than use 100% of my own" (Carnegie, whose name is on a well-known strategic research fund). This is the classic formula for forming corporations, corporations that live off of YOUR labor. Don't use products that are produced by monopolists. NO LOGO! (as Naomi Klein, Canadian anti-globalization activist, pleaded in the title of her book)

Don't Believe hypocrisy--overcome the corporate media machine-- gain control-- form your own opinion! Stop being a passive consumer of the media spectacle-- be your own independent media!