MOSCOW Ordinary Muscovites began gathering on Saturday to demonstrate support for Russia's only national independent television station in its fight against new owners the journalists say want to silence their critical voice.

Several hundred had already assembled in a spring drizzle an hour before the protest was scheduled to begin, huddling under umbrellas beneath Europe's tallest television tower, its top hidden in the clouds.

Demonstrators were given baseball caps in NTV television's trademark bright green. "Protection from lies!" Read a placard.

A large contingent of police was on the scene, searching through the bags of those approaching.

The demonstration took place as CNN founder Ted Turner negotiated to buy into NTV. One source close to the talks said the American magnate wanted to wrap up a deal over the weekend.

"NTV is your right to the truth. Come on Saturday," said the station in a broadcast appeal for people to turn out.

A similar protest on a sunny day a week ago attracted more than 10,000 people, a large crowd by the standards of the jaded post-Communist capital. But the station's journalists are hoping for far more this week, after the state-dominated natural gas monopoly tried to oust their managers in a boardroom coup.

On Saturday morning the station showed folk singers, actors, poets and journalists gathered around a piano singing songs, asking for support and taking calls from loyal viewers.

But in one of the first signs of dissent within the station's ranks, one of its top journalists wrote a scathing open resignation letter that accused NTV General Director Yevgeny Kiselyov -- one of Russia's foremost current affairs broadcasters -- of "burning down the village to the last house".

So far most of the station's journalists remain united, saying they believe President Vladimir Putin or others in the Kremlin are determined to stifle them. They want the protest to show the depth of support against the management changes.

The row has sparked concern abroad, with the European Union and United States saying they were keeping an eye on the affair.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to raise the issue when he meets Putin in St. Petersburg on Monday.

Talks between the journalists and new bosses, led by Alfred Kokh, the head of Gazprom's Media Arm, have been fruitless.

Kokh met the NTV team on Thursday for around two hours and then again for an hour on Friday, when he walked out after saying the journalists had demanded he appeal to Putin to send the dispute to the Supreme Court.

He also appeared on the station on Friday night, fielding hostile questions on a rancorous talk show.

The talks with Turner have been going on the sidelines of the dispute. Turner, who has had a long interest in Russia, said on Wednesday he had made a deal to buy shares from the station's founder, Vladimir Gusinsky, but would only be able to keep NTV independent if he made a similar deal with Gazprom.

Industry sources familiar with the talks said Turner's camp was looking to work out a deal with Gazprom as soon as possible, preferably over the weekend.

They said the deal was likely see Turner with around 30 percent of the group and Gusinsky stripped of his voting powers.

On Friday, Turner urged the station's journalists to "remain patient and calm" while he negotiated.

(Reuter)