World Watch

REUTERS

ANCHOR AWAY: Parfyonov, seen here in happier times, was pulled off the air

Getting The Message
If the Russian media still needed a signal on how it would fare during President Vladimir Putin's second term, it came in loud and clear last Tuesday. Close to midnight, Russia's NTV television station abruptly fired star newsman Leonid Parfyonov and canceled his flagship Sunday night show, Namedni (The Other Day), which had run for 11 years. Two days earlier, the program had carried an exclusive interview with the widow of Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, killed in Qatar last February, allegedly by two Russian agents now on trial in Doha . NTV ordered Parfyonov not...

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