Alexei Kapustin, student

Various TV channels report on reality differently, and I guess that state-owned channels are more interested in concealing the real facts than are private ones. But the latter don't have such broad access to information. Of all the channels, the most objective is perhaps the first channel (ORT), or maybe RTR. As for NTV, I don't find it at all objective. But then again, it's difficult to talk about 100 percent objective reporting, as I reckon some kind of censorship exists at each channel that filters out this or that information.

Alexander Osipov, tax inspector

I don't think Russian television is objective about reporting news. The channels' policies are defined by those who own them, and I would not call them particularly honest people - they struggle for power, pulling the rug out from under each other, dishing out only information they are comfortable with themselves. What counts today is big money and not objective information. As a result, there's no truth. I don't trust television. ... As a customer, it offends me when I am looking for the truth and find something else. But I don't think I will live to see that change.

Olga Shevtsova, student

They [Russian television channels] are deceiving us. What they say is not true. Most news programs on the air are bought off by those structures that want only their opinions heard - they don't care for the real facts. Well, they can afford it. ... I rarely watch news myself, but if I do, I usually go for NTV's news programs. I wouldn't really call them all that objective, perhaps, but at least they are more intellectual than the others. Maybe I would not always trust what they report, but I'd still choose NTV.

Irina Yefimova, musician

I lived abroad recently. After listening to how news is covered on television over there, you realize the difference. Understandably, here it [the news] is tuned to Russian eyes and ears. But, I think what the Russian audience gets is not always the truth. For instance, events in Yugoslavia were covered so differently across the border. When I came here, I wound up in heated discussions with my friends; we looked at things from different points of view. Here, information is edited - maybe so as not to shock the public or to prevent the country from sliding into civil war.

Sergei Chernikov, Interior Ministry employee

I think that all Russian channels are more or less objective when it comes to reporting on events in Dagestan, say. However, there's more objectivity on NTV. But, it's difficult to trust it entirely; it [news coverage] is not just reporting politics, it's also making it. Take Sergei Dorenko, for example. His reporting looks zakaznoi (done to order), although his information is very interesting. Of course, the owners of the channels order programs to suit their tastes and ideas. There's Berezovsky and the rest. It'd be nice to have more objectivity.

Alexander Skvortsov, military school cadet

Russian television [news coverage] is objective enough. However, what's bad is that it's all shown from one point of view, because television is owned and represented by the same oligarchs that rule the country. They allow the channels to show only what suits them [the owners], and what needs to be shown in reality will be concealed, just as for decades before. Regardless of freedom of speech, what they don't want to show they won't; the sieve for information is always there, though its structure varies with each channel. For newsworthiness, NTV is at the top.