Canadian model runs a new programme on Chechen TV

Starting June 7, the "Grozny" Chechen State Television and Radio Company (ChSTRC) broadcasts an English-language new programme "View from within by Crystall Callahan" run by a Canadian model. It is planned that the programme will appear once a week, every Sunday.

The new programme, which is staged and run by a model from Canada Crystall Callahan, comprises three sections: news, a plot on the topic chosen by the lady-announcer and her answers to the SMSs received from the audience during a week.

Some residents of Grozny who watched the first issue of the new programme on June 7 are somewhat bewildered. People express their discouragement; they do not understand the aim of the programme and its target audience.

"To my mind, our TV people have deficit of ideas and creative stagnation. Who can be interested in Canadian photo model's opinion on Chechnya? People here huge amount of various problems - shortage of jobs, delays with payment of wages, increase of tariffs on housing and communal services and pretty plenty other things," said Aslan Mairbekov, a Grozny resident, in whose opinion, television of Chechnya should give more legal consultations for people.

In their turn, people from the ChSTRC find the new project quite justified and demanded. "The programme is addressed, first of all, to a foreign viewer. Starting the end of last year, our television is broadcasting via a satellite, and our programmes are now available to many countries of the world, where people know English better than Russian; besides, the captions make the programme accessible to local viewers," a source from the TV Company asserts.