President Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday confirmed reports that he plans to merge Russia's two state television channels, prompting outrage in the media and accusations that he is trying to tighten state control over national television.


After meeting with 16 heads of radio companies Tuesday, Yeltsin issued a statement through Itar-Tass in which he confirmed that he was planning to "reorganize" Ostankino and Russian television.


"This merger is totally inconsistent with democracy," said Anatoly Lysenko, general director of the Russian Television and Radio Company, or RTR. "It is a return to the days when the government controlled the media completely."


The proposed reorganization would bring Ostankino and RTR into one state-run company, with a chairman appointed by the president. Although both channels would continue to broadcast, programming decisions would be made by one central board of directors.


RTR broadcast an appeal to the president to reconsider Monday night, while Grigory Shevelyov, deputy chairman of Ostankino, said Tuesday that the move would inevitably cause a narrowing of the field of information and democracy in Russia.


A presidential spokesman, however, said the proposal was forced by financial considerations.


"It is becoming increasingly difficult for the state to finance two channels," said Vyacheslav Kostikov, the president's press secretary.


Lysenko denied the move would save any significant amount of money.


"It may cut out the 5 or 10 percent of our budget that goes for management salaries," he said. "But it will bring no great economic gain. It will, however, make it easier for the president to control the media."The primary expense for both Ostankino and RTR -- 80 percent of their budgets -- is the cost of relaying television signals throughout Russia's vast territory. Lysenko emphasized that Yeltsin's proposed reorganization would not help at all with those outlays.


Yeltsin first made public his plans for the merger Friday during a meeting with representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. He tried Tuesday to calm the furor, saying he regretted that "some journalists were already commenting on a decision that had not yet been adopted."


"We have not yet determined exactly what form the reorganization will take," he said.


On Saturday, however, RTR canceled a scheduled showing of "Top Secret," dealing with problems in the army, in a move that appeared to demonstrate state censorship in action.


"My program was just the first victim of this decision," said Artyom Borovik, a journalist best known for his chronicling of the war in Afghanistan, who hosts the show. "It is a small sign of what will happen if the merger takes place. This is a very serious blow to freedom of the press."


The program called on the president to do something about the army, which had failed to find a place for itself in post-Soviet Russia, Borovik said.


"The murder of journalist Dmitry Kholodov is a symptom of the problem," said Borovik, referring to the Moskovsky Komsomolets reporter who had investigated military corruption. "How can the army stay out of politics when the officers are not paid for months at a time and the military-industrial complex goes on strike? We call on the president to do something before the army takes matters into its own hands."


Borovik said he received a call from the RTR management a few hours before the show was to air in Moscow, telling him that the program was being pulled because it contained an interview with former Vice President Alexander Rutskoi.


"They said he was a criminal, and there was no place for criminals on Russian television," he laughed. Rutskoi was imprisoned and later amnestied for his part in fomenting the violent confrontation between the president and the former Supreme Soviet in October 1993.


"RTR gave in to pressure from the government," Borovik said, making an allegation that Lysenko did not deny.


"Borovik's show ended up being in the right place at the wrong time," he said. "There are times when the survival of the company outweigh the interests of individuals."


RTR was created in 1990 and staunchly supported Yeltsin in his confrontation with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. On Oct. 3, 1993, as supporters of the Supreme Soviet stormed the Ostankino television center, it was RTR that kept broadcasting, after Ostankino had shut down.


There was bitterness at the company Tuesday that the Russian president had such a short memory when it came to his erstwhile supporters.


"RTR was the first step to independence for Russia," said Lysenko. "It was created as a means to defend democracy."


Borovik was more cynical. "RTR helped Yeltsin in the power struggle, and now that he is in control he has no further use for it," he said.


There have been other developments on the television front recently.


Moscow's Mayor Yury Luzhkov has strengthened the city government's ties with Moscow Television Channel, ordering the Moscow State Property Committee to form a joint-stock company with the television company.


Moskovskaya Pravda ran a headline "Completely His Own Television Company," and said the move would increase the city's shareholding in the company to 74 percent.


The mayor's office played down the significance of the deal saying it would not change the way the company works.


Moscow Television Channel officials were not available for comment.


TV6 meanwhile appears to be surviving its bust up with CNN in July. Born out of the heady days of perestroika and power chemistry between two big media characters -- CNN founder Ted Turner and Russian entrepreneur Eduard Zagalayev -- the joint venture foundered 1 1/2 years after its first transmission.


Neither side is giving away much. Boris Bogdanov, chief editor of TV6, declined to comment on the change in the relationship other than to say that the company has reduced transmissions of CNN programs.


The subject is also taboo at CNN's Moscow bureau. The official line is that there is still a working relationship between the two and that CNN is still providing programming. The real story is "a good lesson in how not to get into business in Russia," according to one insider. The venture broke down in a fight over the 51 percent ownership, and CNN is nursing "slightly burned hands."