Russia’s Ministry of Finance has recommended cutting the funding for public media, including RT (the former Russia Today).
Vedomosti reports that although the draft budget for 2017-19 has yet to be produced, the ministry has suggested funding for the news agencies TASS and Rossiya Segodnya, along with other public media including VGTRK, and RT, be reduced to amounts “needed to create socially relevant content”.
RT’s budget for 2016 was set at R19 billion (€260.4 million), while the total state subsidy for public media in 2015 amounted to R94.6 billion, or 14.3% less than a year earlier.
The ministry has also proposed reducing the subsidues for analogue TV channels in cities with a population of less than 100,000.
However, this would only apply where coverage of the first DTTmultiplex is already at least 98%.
