Gorbachev Fails in Try to Suspend Free Press

In a startling move that would have rolled back his six-year-old policy of glasnost , President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today urged the Soviet legislature to take temporary control of the media and suspend the nation’s press law.

Lawmakers objected strenuously and instead voted to create a committee that would look into ways of ensuring “media objectivity.”

In Washington, the White House reacted with displeasure to Gorbachev’s call for press restrictions. “It’s not a good sign that he is looking to subdue or muzzle the press as a way of getting objectivity,” presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. “We don’t share that viewpoint.”

Speaking to lawmakers today, Gorbachev angrily denounced an article in the Moscow News that he said referred to the Soviet leadership as a “criminal regime.”

The newspaper bore a bold front-page headline, “Bloody Sunday,” and was bordered in black. A picture showed a man holding a Lithuanian flag and running away from a Soviet tank.

“The Crime of the Regime That Does Not Want to Leave the Stage,” read a headline beneath the photo.

Citing high tensions, Gorbachev urged suspending the nation’s press law, which curtailed censorship and guaranteed independent newspapers, radio and television stations. However, he did not offer a concrete proposal, and he backed off when deputies, including a journalist, objected.

The legislature then voted 275 to 32 with 30 abstentions to have the leadership of the Supreme Soviet and a legislative committee work out measures to ensure objectivity in all Soviet media.

“In connection with the period we’re in, a period of important decisions, we need constructive dialogue and cooperation,” Gorbachev told lawmakers.