Tatyana Rostislavovna Mitkova (russian: Татья́на Ростисла́вовна Митко́ва) (born September 13, 1957 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) is a Russian television journalist for NTV. She became famous in 1991 for refusing to read the official

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

version of the military response to the uprising in Lithuania. In 2001,

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described her as one of Russia's "best-known news presenters". In 1991, she received one of the first International Press Freedom Awards from the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...

. In January 2001, she was summoned by prosecutors to discuss an alleged $70,000 loan from NTV. The summons came in the midst of an attempted takeover of the station by

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

, and Mitkova described it as "psychological pressure and a direct threat to journalists." At the end of the month, a Moscow court gave Gazprom control of NTV's owner Media-Most, which was by then described by '' BusinessWeek'' as "Russia's sole independent national television station" and by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "the last nationwide voice critical of President Vladimir V. Putin". Despite a lockout of some journalists who refused to "pledge loyalty" to the new management, Mitkova was persuaded to stay with the station by new owner Boris Jordan.

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Татьяна Ростиславовна Миткова
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitkova, Tatyana 1957 births Living people Writers from Moscow Moscow State University alumni Russian television journalists