TV & VIDEO - Nov. 14, 1989

Soviet News Program Unbends: Soviet television unveiled a new weekly news program Sunday featuring frank coverage of once-sensitive Soviet subjects, live debates and commentary by prominent specialists. The broadcast, entitled “Seven Days,” was hosted by Soviet television’s chief news editor, Eduard Sagalayev, in a relaxed but hard-hitting style--far different from the stiff, traditional nightly news programs. “Every person has the right to know the real state of things and to consciously draw conclusions about them,” Sagalayev said in his introduction to the broadcast. The segments included a much fuller account of the week’s events in East Germany than had been previously shown on state television and a debate on the current coal miners’ strike in the Arctic Vorkuta coal field. The program ran 80 minutes, twice as long as the nightly newscasts.