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New Life Radio Battles for License Renewal
MAGADAN, RUSSIA (April 4, 2006) - Christian Radio for Russia (CRFR) plans to
appeal a government decision to deny its re-licensing request for New
Life Radio (NLR) in Magadan. Christian Radio is the umbrella corporation
under which New Life operates.
The Russian government denied the renewal application, which could force
the station to permanently close should an appeal be unsuccesful, says
Dan Johnson, CRFR president, Johnson says a lawsuit is planned should
the appeal fail.
The station has been off the air since December while awaiting a renewal
license, Johnson says. Officials also are waiting for re-licensing of
the satellite broadcast of New Life Radio in Moscow, which is organized
under a different corporation. That broadcast continues to be
transmitted by satellite and carried by various FM, cable, and other
affiliates that use the Moscow programming while awaiting its re-licensing.
Although CRFR now operates independently, the Evangelical Covenant
Church provided startup assistance and several Covenant churches across
the country continue to support the radio ministry.
The government routinely renews the licenses of secular stations, but
religious stations recently have met strong resistance, Johnson says,
explaining that the government has grown increasingly hostile to mission
activity. Recently, Russian Minister of Justice Yury Chaika announced
that he will seek legislation curbing such activity.
"Recently, we have been disturbed by illegal missionary activity," news
reports quote Chaika as saying. Johnson says the station "has never
committed any questionable programming action that would violate
government-defined standards," nor has it ever received any warning from
federal broadcast authorities.
"The NLR denial is proof of a general attitude held by members of the
national license committee that they will not support Christian radio
applicants and certainly not those outside the Russian Orthodox Church,"
Johnson notes. The Orthodox Church has been pushing the government to
curb activities of all religious groups outside its umbrella, he adds.
The station ceased operating in December following the attempted
takeover of the station by the owner of a local radio and TV station.
After the bid failed, the owner convinced the local prosecutor to demand
that NLR Magadan stop broadcasting, Johnson says. He adds that the local
branch of the Federal Communication Service was willing to allow the
station to continue broadcasting during the renewal process.
The news is more positive in Moscow, Johnson says. "NLR Moscow is
finding many new outlets and listeners in cities across Russia and the
Ukraine."
The station is exploring streaming radio and TV on the Internet to reach
further into Russia and even the United States, Johnson says. The
station is negotiating with a Seattle radio station to use special FM
signals to reach the area's Slavic population, which reaches 200,000 people.
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