Krasnodar, 5 May. 16+ Our today’s interviewee is Aleksandr Rudenko, General Director of New Kuban TV (Kiban 24) Broadcasting Company.
Q.: As a journalist, you must have been facing situations that need an ad hoc reaction, without waiting for the manager’s response. What did you do in such situations, and what were the consequences?
A.: Once we were shooting a news piece about opening of an alpine skiing season in Sochi, when I got a call from my manager who told me to take the passport and go to the airport. We did not know what was going on – only later did we learn that then our planes were flying from Novosibirsk with charity freight to Guinea. They had refuelling in Sochi, where we were taken on board, and eight or nine hours later we were in Africa shooting how our military were rendering aid to a hospital. It was during an Ebola outburst. We were not able to reach our studio; we did not know what and how to shoot, but eventually we did do a good newsreel. There were no consequences, because we had a possibility to edit it.
Q.: What can you compare news-making trade with?
A.: Journalism is like and at the same time unlike all other professions. When making a newsreel, a journalist is a bit of a tractor or taxi driver, governmental officer or rescuer – depending on the theme. Journalists learn the peculiarities of different trades through their heroes, and begin to associate themselves with their personages, as if reading a book about them – but only until they are involved with this particular material.
Q.: What difficulties do you face as the manager of a state-owned media?
A.: What we have are tasks and not difficulties. The main ones are how to increase our revenues, reduce the expenses, and improve the quantity and quality of production. In our case, it is the content in the following three media: TV, radio and Internet.
Q.: How should a journalist correctly cooperate with the authorities to remain unbiased?
A.: You have to be targeted at creative and constructive work, to praise for the success and show the problems. I think that the regional authorities are more than simply loyal to journalists. The regional leaders, starting from [the governor] Veniamin Kondratiev, do not like songs of praise – however, they can hardly like pitch-dark criticism, either. You always have to find a good balance.
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