MOSCOW, February 15 (Itar-Tass) —— The management of the Gazprom-media holding company vows that no changes to the editorial policy of the Ekho Moskvy radio station are due.
“There are no plans for personnel changes to the editorial staff, including the editor-in-chief, or for the broadcasting policy of the radio station,” Gazprom media said in a statement obtained by Itar-Tass.
Gazprom-media as the majority shareholder is going to use its right to adjust the quantitative composition of the Ekho Moskvy board of directors to the applicable legislation. Representation in the board of directors must be proportionate to the number of shares. On December 27, 2011 the holding company initiated an early annual general meeting of the daughter company’s shareholders. Gazprom-media insists on the preservation of the institution of independent directors, with chances of their rotation.
As the editor-in-chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Alexei Venediktov, said earlier, the broadcasting policy would remain unchanged and his resignation was not on the agenda.
The voting on a new board of directors will be held at an early general meeting of shareholders on March 29, 2012. The current board of directors will stay in office until that date, Gazprom-media said.
Currently, the Ekho Moskvy board of directors consists of four directors from Gazprom, three directors from Ekho Moskvy and three independent directors.
On Tuesday, the news arrived that the radio station’s staff had agreed with the media holding a joint list of a new board of directors that would be put to the vote at the annual general meeting. Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov and his deputy Vladimir Varfolomeyev are not on the list.
The institution of independent directors will be preserved. There are two candidates for the posts – Svyazinvest General Director Vadim Semyonov and former general director of Lenizdat, Yevgeny Trubin. They are to replace Alexander Makovsky, of the Research Center of Private Law, and Yevgeny Yasin, the science doyen of the Higher School of Economics.
In the new board the journalist staff and the directors sharing the station’s current broadcasting policies will have fewer representatives.
Ekho Moskvy is a round-the-clock radio station, founded on August 22, 1990. It is a closed joint stock company, 66 percent of which belong to the holding company Gazprom-media, and 34 percent is owned by the radio station’s staff, including an 18-percent stake belonging to the editor-in-chief, Alexei Venediktov.