DEMOCRATIC PRESS IN DANGER.

The closure of Nezavisimaya gazeta and Kuranty is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the problems of the liberal press are concerned, Duma media committee chairman told Moskovskaya pravda June 7. “Out of the 23,000 newspapers that we managed to create in Russia as a result of democratic processes, only about 10,000 remain” as a result of Russian government policies and the government monopoly on printers. Meanwhile, the Duma complained about Yeltsin’s veto of a bill restricting the privatization of the electronic media, and two television journalists in Saint Petersburg threatened to resign because Moscow was restricting the ability of their station to reach other regions in Russia, Moscow radio reported June 6.

Fascism Seen as Rising Threat to Russian Democracy.