Our TV is best: Russian media official rejects criticism

The best way to deal with public criticism is surely to reject it entirely. At least, this was the approach taken by Russian official Alexei Volin in the face of complaints about TV channel Pervy Kanal’s New Year coverage.

Mr Volin, who serves as the Russian Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media, had a simple message for those who signed a petition complaining about the coverage: “Russia has the best television in the world, and those who don’t like its New Year’s coverage don’t have to watch it,” he said in a statement to the Rossiya Segodnya news agency.

One of Russia’s biggest television networks, Pervy Kanal has been the object of mocking over recent days for the poor quality of its holiday programming, which has reportedly featured the same group of celebrities — not necessarily in their prime — year after year.

A viewer from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia has created a petition addressed to Pervy Kanal’s general director, Konstantin Ernst, calling for the network to invest more in finding out what viewers actually want to see on New Year’s Eve. So far it has received over 92,000 signatures — we can probably assume that Mr Volin’s was not one of them.

Source: The Moscow Times