Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

telly we share what we've been watching

Cladie Aide.

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of Witness History from the BBC World Service.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, we're looking all this week at the history of Russia

under President Putin.

Today we're going back to 2001, when staff at Russia's only independent TV station, N TV, lost their battle for independence.

Dina Newman spoke to the head of N TV at the time Yevgeny Kiselov.

When Russia lost independent NTV, it was just the first step on the way to total loss of independent media.

NTV had been created by a wealthy businessman,

Vadim Murgosinski, with the aim of providing independent, though not impartial, news,

analysis and entertainment.

N TV shows were creative, innovative and felt like a breath of fresh air after decades of dreary Soviet

broadcasting. But over the years the station grew increasingly critical not only of the

owner's business rivals but also of the Russian authorities,

including the newly elected president Vladimir Putin.

This is

This is puppets and TV's most popular satirical show. This episode was broadcast in January 2000.

...