Since Jan. 1, official agencies such as Itar-Tass and Ostankino have reported that Russian troops had "full control" of Grozny, after taking the center of town, the railroad, and Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev's holdout -- the presidential palace.
But as reports from international news agencies trickled in, this proclamation of "full control" turned out to be premature. In fact, Russian troops had suffered a humiliating defeat in the capital's center and rebel fighters wandered freely through the streets.
The propaganda machines are up and running once again and, as if to symbolize the change, the Ostankino news program, Novosti, has been renamed with its Soviet title Vremya and has returned to its Soviet-era theme music.
But while agencies like Itar-Tass and Ostankino are falling into the familiar pattern of serving as a government mouthpiece, independent news organizations have appointed themselves watchdogs of the truth.
"The organs created by the government and the presidential administration to control information on the events in Chechnya have become a constant source of intentional disinformation," the Moscow Charter of Journalists, a group of reporters from independent papers, said in a statement Wednesday.
The charter registered its protest against the government's propaganda campaign, warning that traditional channels of information "are no longer capable of defending readers, viewers and listeners from ill-meaning lies."
"They [Itar-Tass] believe that by using official sources they are defending themselves," said Sergei Parkhomenko, a Segodnya columnist and an author of the message. "But it is not enough to report the official word -- they are obliged to comment on the alternative sources."
Oleg Vilechkov, a reporter for Itar-Tass, denied Wednesday that the agency's coverage of the Chechnya conflict lacked balance.
Official agencies offered more objective coverage early in the conflict, Parkhomenko said. But as alternative sources disappeared from government news reports, independent agencies began to suspect a message from above.
"They don't care how many people are killed," said Igor Malashenko, director of the independent NTV. "But they do care how many dead bodies are shown on television."
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