Newspapers, television channels and radio stations owned by members of the Russian government will be put up for sale, according to a post on the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper blog.

The SFN blog report, which is based on articles by Polit.ru and Trud.ru, says the announcement followed comments by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that public figures “should not be the owners of ‘factories, newspapers, steamships”.

He said official bodies should only be involved with fields that encourage quality performance of duties, suggesting that all other industries should be privatised.