Russian Papers Say the Reforms Are Killing Them
Two leading newspapers warned Wednesday that market reforms are forcing the independent press out of business and accused the government of supporting only semiofficial and loyalist publications.
“The hero of perestroika has become its first victim,” the reformist daily Komsomolskaya Pravda lamented on its front page.
Arkady Udaltzov, chief editor of the weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta, also directed a stinging front-page commentary at President Boris N. Yeltsin’s government. If the free press perishes, “that will mean the new order did not take root,” he wrote.
Independent newspapers and magazines have faced huge increases in the cost of paper, ink and distribution since Yeltsin’s government lifted price controls on Jan. 2.
Most have raised newsstand prices.
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