By: President Vladimir Putin today sidestepped harsh criticism of the level of media freedom in Russia, telling an international media meeting that the proportion of state ownership of media was decreasing while the level of outlets was ballooning.
Putin said that many in the world still fail to acknowledge the "grandiosity" of the changes Russia has gone through since the Soviet collapse and thanked delegates to the World Newspaper Congress for not allowing themselves to be "scared off" by dire reports of a lack of media freedom in Russia.
Putin was responding to an address to more than 1,700 delegates by Gavin O'Reilly, President of the World Association of Newspapers, who appealed personally to Putin to "take vital new measures ... to help your great country develop the strong independent press that it merits."
As Putin was preparing to speak in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, several young people stood up, threw pieces of paper into the air and shouted repeatedly, "Putin is the executioner of freedom!"
Critics at home and abroad have accused Putin of stifling media freedom as part of a broader effort to increase the Kremlin's control over Russian politics and society since he came to power more than six years ago.
The three main nationwide television channels are controlled by the state and do not criticize the President, a situation rights activists say is reminiscent of the Soviet era.
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