The bill, which will become law if approved by parliament's upper house and President Boris Yeltsin, would set up a federal foundation to take charge of all state-owned printing presses and supervise distribution of government subsidies to the media.
Opponents of the bill, which passed by 288 to 4, said the draft law was designed to give the Duma's Information Policy Committee chief, Mikhail Poltoranin, unprecedented press control.
Poltoranin, who has actively promoted the bill, contends that the new legislation will give the media more freedom than ever before and grant them tax breaks and customs privileges.
But Sergei Gryzunov, chairman of the Press Committee which now channels state subsidies to newspapers, said in a recent article published in the liberal daily Izvestia that the new foundation would only support those media outlets that obey it.
"The conclusion is obvious: The disobedient newspapers will become extinct like dinosaurs," Gryzunov wrote. "Under conditions of tough competition on the media market, they would be deprived of equal terms with the obedient ones, which will get all the privileges."
Poltoranin argued at a recent press conference that the foundation would be governed by a board of representatives of the parliament, the government and the media, and that favoritism would be impossible.
But Gryzunov wrote that in practice, the board would delegate all its functions to "professionals" like Poltoranin, who was Yeltsin's first press minister.
"I am surprised at the naivete of some opposition Duma members who think they've got Poltoranin in their camp and that they will get a share of power in the foundation," he wrote.
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