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Russias Ekho Moskvy radio station, which gives a platform to critics of the government, said it faces a threat to editorial independence as its state-controlled majority owner moved to replace the companys chief executive.

Ekaterina Pavlova a former high-level manager in state media, was elected as CEO at a shareholder meeting, Gazprom Media, a unit of the gas exporter, which controls 66 percent of voting shares, said on its website today. She replaces Yuri Fedutinov, who has been in that job since 1992.

The decision is unfair, Ekho Moskvy Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov, who faces re-election to another five-year term, said in a blog entry today. The move is not based on economic grounds and is aimed at pressuring the editorial policy of Ekho Moskvy and personally me as editor-in-chief.

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President Vladimir Putin is moving to control dissonant voices at home as Russians fume about the criticism of Sochi Olympics in global media. The Russian leader, who won a third term in 2012 after facing the biggest protests of his now 14-year rule, is tightening the reins on independent media, having brought the main national television channels under state control during his first term.

The overhaul at Ekho Moskvy, founded in the dying days of communism, follows the threat of closing for independent television channel Dozhd and the dissolution of state news service RIA Novosti.

Dozhd, which has given airtime to anti-Putin punk rockers Pussy Riot and opposition leader Alexey Navalny, came under fire after a poll on its website last month asked whether Soviet dictator Josef Stalin should have surrendered Leningrad to end a Nazi blockade. Amid outrage by veterans associations and pro-government lawmakers, the biggest cable operators said they would drop the channel, cutting its audience to about 2 million from almost 18 million.

Now Ekho Moskvy is feeling the heat through Gazprom Media, a unit of state-run OAO Gazprom, its majority owner since 2001 and the biggest media company in Russia. Its CEO was replaced by the Gazprom Media candidate against the wishes of editorial workers itself, Venediktov said.

While journalists, who own 34 percent of voting shares, have preserved control over editorial policy even under state ownership, that will change if Gazprom Media gets its way, Venediktov said. Ekho Moskvy, whose daily broadcasts reach 3.8 million people with a potential audience of about 46 million, regularly interviews opposition politicians and others with limited access to state-run television.

The state wants to reduce citizens access to information, Venediktov said by phone before todays shareholder meeting to elect a new CEO.Weve come under criticism, including from the president. Thats normal, but this criticism shouldnt be seen as a green light for officials to silence us.

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Putin Tightens Control Over Media as Radio Targeted After TV

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Douglas Rushkoff writes a regular column for CNN.com. He is a media theorist, the author of the book, "Present Shock: When everything happens now" and correspondent on a Frontline documentary "Generation Like" being shown on PBS beginning February 18.

(CNN) -- Ask teens the object of social media, and they'll all tell you the same thing: to get "likes." Whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr, young users understand the coin of this realm, and are more than happy to do what is necessary to accumulate it. But is the currency value neutral, or does it come with an agenda of its own?

Living for likes makes a teen's social career a whole lot easier, in some respects. Now there's a number letting kids know how popular they are, how well a photo is resonating with their friends, or whether their video stands a chance of vaulting them into the professional world of singing, skateboarding or twerking.

What they may not understand, however, is that this game of likes is not taking place on a level playing field. It was constructed by companies whose multibillion-dollar stock valuations are depending on little more than generating traffic -- more likes, follows and favorites -- and then selling the data that can be gleaned from it.

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Social media and the perils of looking for 'likes'

APN News & Media is set to take full control of its radio businesses from Americas Clear Channel and launch a capital raising of between $100 million and $150 million to fund the deal.

It could mark a transformational deal for the trans-Tasman media group under former News Corp executive Michael Miller, who has moved to tidy up the companys complex asset base and pay down debt since he took over as CEO in June.

Mr Millers predecessor, Brett Chenoweth, was ousted by major shareholders after they rejected his push for a $150 million capital raising.

The Australian Radio Network owns the KIIS station in Sydney with Sydney breakfast duo Kyle and Jackie O as well as the Classic Hits network.

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The deal, which also includes New Zealands The Radio Network, values APNs radio assets at around seven times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

The deal is understood to have the backing of major shareholders, which include Independent News & Media, controlled by Irish billionaires Tony OReilly and Denis OBrien, which has a 29 per cent stake, and Allan Gray, which has 19.8 per cent.

Allan Gray chief executive Simon Marais told The Australian Financial Review in October that he would back APN to buy out the 50 per cent of the business it does not own for seven times EBITDA.

Clear Channel will offset declines elsewhere

The move to acquire Clear Channels shareholding will give APN 100 per cent ownership of a fast-growing national metropolitan radio asset, helping to offset the declines at its newspaper publishing arm, which has been hit by structural declines in print circulation and advertising revenues.

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APN takes full control of radio business from Clear Channel, starts capital raising

Government troops have regained full control of a village in central Syria after ousting rebels accused of killing dozens of people there, state media said Tuesday as activists reported an explosion in a southern town killed at least 18 people.

The SANA state news agency said government troops seized control of the village of Maan in Hama province on Monday after destroying the last "hideouts of terrorists, who came into the village and committed a massacre." The government refers to rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad as terrorists.

Syria's nearly three-year-old conflict has grown increasingly sectarian, pitting a rebellion dominated by the country's Sunni Muslim majority against Assad's government and its security forces, which are stacked with members of the leader's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Opposition activists have also reported sectarian killings in Maan earlier this month. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 people, most of them Alawites, were killed when hard-line, anti-Assad Islamic fighters overran the village Feb.9.

In southern Syria, a blast in the town of Muzayrib in Daraa province killed at least 18 people, including four children, the Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights activist group said. Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said it was unclear whether the explosion was a car bomb or an airstrike.

In the neighboring province of Quneitra, the army was reinforcing its positions in an effort to dislodge rebels from the area near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Abdurrahman reported heavy fighting in the hilly area just south of Quneitra city, the provincial capital. He said the army is bringing more tanks, heavy artillery and troops to the region that has been under control of hard-line Islamic rebel groups for months.

The government's apparent showdown with the rebels in the south comes a day after Syrian opposition named a news military chief. Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir hails from southern Syria and was an army commander in Quneitra until 2012 when defected to the opposition.

The Observatory also reported heavy government shelling of Yabroud, the last rebel-held town near Syria's border with Lebanon. Yabroud is located in the mountainous Qalamoun region. Government troops, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have been on a crushing offensive there since early December, trying to sever a main thoroughfare for rebels from Lebanon.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, Security Council ambassadors met behind closed doors into the early evening Tuesday to discuss how and whether rival resolutions on the worsening humanitarian crisis can be melded into a single text that could win approval by the council, which has been deeply divided over Syria.

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Syria Drives Rebels From Site of Alleged Killings

The Alex Jones Show(VIDEO Commercial Free) Friday February 14 2014: Marc Morano
Media Manipulation -- Date: 02/14/2014 -- http://www.prisonplanet.tv/ -Today - On this explosive Friday, February 14 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex cov...

By: Ron Gibson

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The Alex Jones Show(VIDEO Commercial Free) Friday February 14 2014: Marc Morano - Video