Venediktov re-elected as head of Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio
MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - Alexei Venediktov has been confirmed as chief editor of the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow), Russia's oldest independent radio station, for the next three-year term, the station said on Monday.
Under Ekho Moskvy's charter, the station's editor is to be elected by its journalists with subsequent confirmation by its board of directors.
Venediktov was re-elected at a journalists' meeting on Saturday. The board's approval of his election "was not a unanimous decision as Venediktov himself abstained during the vote at the board meeting," a report on Ekho Moskvy's website said.
Venediktov has been working for Ekho of Moskvy since 1990 and has headed it since 1998.
Ekho Moskvy was the first independent radio station to be licensed after the former Soviet Union brought out a law permitting private broadcasting.
It debuted on air in August 1990, being one of few radio stations to oppose that month's abortive hardline putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
According to the Medialogia company, Ekho Moskvy is the most influential radio station in Russia.
It has estimated daily audiences of 600,000 in Moscow and 1.5 million in the rest of Russia.