By Daniel McLaughlin

MOSCOW, April 4 (Reuters) - Journalists at Russia's only independent nationwide television station NTV protested on Wednesday against a takeover by a state-dominated gas firm amid reports that CNN founder Ted Turner was to buy into the channel.

The journalists at NTV have angrily rejected a boardroom takeover on Tuesday by the gas firm Gazprom, which the journalists say is the tool the authorities are using to seize the channel and silence a vocal critic.

The boardroom coup saw Gazprom-nominated directors take over key positions and ousted NTV's founder Vladimir Gusinsky.

Gusinsky, fighting extradition from Spain on fraud charges he says are part of the clampdown on his media outlets, has tried to attract international investment in NTV. CNN quoted a source as saying Turner and Gusinsky had clinched an outline deal.

Gusinsky's Media-Most holding company said it had no information. The Washington Post cited sources as saying the deal was worth $225 million.

The journalists' protests against the takeover at the station, based at Moscow's Ostankino television tower, saw many of them spend all night at their desks.

The action continued with a break to normal programming to show only news programmes, interpersed with commercials.

NTV ACCUSES PRESIDENT

NTV is by far the most influential source of information outside Kremlin control. Two other national stations, ORT and RTR, are either state-controlled or fully state-owned.

"In protest at the attempt illegally to change the board of NTV, only news programmes will be broadcast," said a caption which NTV was showing for most of the morning on the background of an empty news reader's chair in the studio.

NTV's case is widely seen as a test of President Vladimir Putin's tolerance of dissent, although the Kremlin says it is above the fight. Gazprom says the affair is purely financial as Media-Most owed its millions of dollars in loans.

Yevgeny Kiselyov, who rejects the Gazprom decision to replace him as NTV's editor-in-chief, blasted the president. "Putin declared war on NTV and now he says he has no link to this," he told reporters.

NTV also showed regular shots of the station's foyer, where its own reporters and many from other media were awaiting the ousted NTV directors and, possibly, the new management.

The arrival of three policemen, broadcast live by NTV, created a brief flurry of excitement amid rumours the new managers would have to force their way into the building through crowds of NTV supporters and hordes of journalists.

But the police only asked Kiselyov to assist them in pushing back the crowd which gathered at the ground floor entrance.

"OUTLINE DEAL"

Turner's representatives have already visited Moscow to investigate buying into NTV and CNN's report cited a source as saying the two men had struck an "outline" deal, under which Turner would receive most of Gusinsky's holdings.

A spokesman for the Atlanta-based cable news network told Reuters that Turner was acting outside his role as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner (AOL.N), the parent company of CNN.

The Washington Post said in a report on its website that the price had been set at $225 million and that Turner was to buy into Media-Most, Gusinsky's holding company with a stake in NTV.

Kiselyov declined to comment on a possible deal.

Gazprom said on Tuesday that Gusinsky had been replaced as chairman of NTV by Alfred Kokh, head of Gazprom's media arm.

It also appointed Boris Jordan, a U.S. banker prominent in a messy 1990s privatisation programme, to run the network, and appointed a new editor-in-chief.

Bitter boardroom battles at Russian firms have sometimes spilled over into violence between rival factions.

More than 10,000 NTV supporters gathered at the weekend in one of the largest demonstrations Moscow has seen in years. Organisers said a similar protest could be held this weekend.

NTV JOURNALISTS KEEP VIGIL, TURNER FACES STORM

April 5, 2001

By Peter Graff MOSCOW (Reuters) - Journalists kept up a vigil on Thursday to block a hostile takeover of Russia's only nationwide independent television station, while Ted Turner rode to their rescue -- and into a full-blown Moscow political storm.

Early on Thursday morning, NTV television showed pictures of police vans it said had gathered outside its studio, saying it feared they were there to keep its morning news off the air. Police could not be reached for comment.

Turner, the founder of CNN, confirmed on Wednesday that he had agreed with NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky to buy a stake in the channel, by far Russia's most influential source of information that does not answer to the Kremlin.

But the U.S. media magnate made clear he could ensure the station's continued independence only if he persuades the state-dominated natural gas monopoly Gazprom, which now says it controls the station, to sell him shares as well.

Gazprom, which acquired a large stake by guaranteeing Gusinsky's debts, announced on Tuesday it had sacked NTV's management and placed a 34-year-old American banker in charge, with the head of a state news agency as editor-in-chief.

The station's journalists say the gas monopoly is doing the Kremlin's bidding to muzzle criticism of President Vladimir Putin. In protest they canceled all entertainment programming to show only news reports -- mostly about themselves -- making an exception late on Wednesday for a soccer match.

Turner said he stands by NTVs reporters and expressed disappointment at the turmoil surrounding the station.

"I am committed to the promotion of free and open media around the world, and highly value the journalistic staff that drives NTV and consider them to be highly professional and dependable," he said in the statement announcing his bid.

"While we are disappointed with the recent disruptive developments regarding NTV, we look forward with enthusiasm to finalizing an agreement with Gazprom and Gazprom-Media that will ensure the ongoing independence of NTV," Turner said.

His statement did not make clear whether he would go through with the deal to buy shares from Gusinsky if Gazprom does not also sell him shares.

TURNER RIDES INTO A STORM

Turner's bid for a stake in NTV would be remarkable under any circumstances, representing by far the most important foreign investment in the media in a country that has known a free press for only a decade.

But the timing puts him in the ring at the climax of the fight for control of the station -- a flat-out political brawl that has kept Russia's leading politicians, its courts and a few of its rifle-toting police busy for more than a year.

Gusinsky is now in Spain awaiting a decision on extradition to face Russian fraud charges he says are part of the Kremlin's campaign to silence him. His companies were raided some 30 times by police this year.

By all accounts, Russia's media are heavily politicized. Putin says he supports free speech in Russia, but has also castigated the owners of the commercial press for working "against the state."

In recent election campaigns, the state media have been drafted to lionize the president and smear his opponents.

NTV has also got into its share of political dogfights, especially in the mid 1990s when it noisily backed then-President Boris Yeltsin's re-election, and later vilified Gusinsky's rivals in privatization auctions.

But the station has also earned a reputation for groundbreaking journalism, especially during Russia's first Chechen war in 1994-96. It was alone in reporting major corruption scandals in the late Yeltsin years.

Turner has known Putin for years: the Russian president was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in charge of foreign relations in Russia's second city when Turner staged the Goodwill Games there in 1994. Putin hosted Turner again in Moscow last year.