"7 Radio Journalists Quit Jobs in Protest"
By Svetlana Osadchuk
Staff Writer
Seven journalists have resigned from Russian News Service after new management censored their reports about a Dissenters' March and a dispute with Estonia, among other things, several of the journalists said Friday.
Russian News Service -- a leading private broadcast news agency that provides news to the country's largest radio station, Russkoye Radio, and other partner stations -- is run by general director Alexander Shkolnik and editor Vsevolod Neroznak, both of whom joined the agency from Channel One state television.

Reporters started leaving after Shkolnik fired editor Mikhail Baklanov last month and replaced him with Neroznak. Deputy editor Maria Makeyeva, who anchored morning broadcasts, and Dmitry Mangalov, who anchored the 5 p.m. news, left first, followed days later by Anastasia Izyumskaya and Artyom Khan. The latest three -- Olga Shipsha, Lyubov Shirizhik and Margarita Bondarenko -- tendered their resignations Thursday.

Shipsha declined to discuss her resignation, and Shirizhik and Bondarenko could not be reached for comment. But Khan and Izyumskaya said censorship and pressure had prompted all seven resignations.

Khan said management had accused him of siding with Estonia in his coverage of protests held by the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group outside the country's Moscow embassy in late April and early May. The protests were over Estonia's decision to relocate a World War II memorial in Tallinn."

7 Radio Journalists Quit Jobs in Protest