A former host for REN-TV in Russia, the country's last independent network, has accused it of censoring stories that conflict with the worldview of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

An excerpt:

Recent turmoil in the news department of REN-TV, Russia's last nationwide television network with independent news programming, has caused concern among media analysts and free-speech advocates in the country.

Last July, RTL Group, the broadcasting arm of the Bertelsmann Group, agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in REN-TV from Irena Lesnevskaya, who founded and ran the channel with her son, Dmitry Lesnevsky. Some journalists are criticizing RTL for not intervening in what they say are moves to restrict the station's coverage

REN-TV has been known for critical news reporting that offered an alternative to state channels' uniformly positive coverage of President Vladimir V. Putin, media analysts said. Its signal reaches more than 113 million people, although its audience share hovers around 5 percent.

"REN-TV was the last channel that had real news, people who tried to speak the truth," Aleksei Simonov, the president of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a press freedom group, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station in October.

Olga Romanova, the host of a news analysis program called "24," said that on Nov. 24, private security guards blocked her from entering the studio at the network's Moscow headquarters. She said the move was on the orders of Alexander Ordzhonikidze, a former gas industry and satellite television executive who was appointed by the new shareholders as chief executive of REN-TV Media Holding, parent company of the television channel.

Mr. Ordzhonikidze told the Russian media that he was trying out new anchors for the program and that security in the studios was tight.

Ms. Romanova said that in the weeks leading up to her departure as anchor, she protested what she said were Mr. Ordzhonikidze's decisions to keep several reports off the air - pressure that began after she broadcast a report about a pro-fascist march in Moscow on Nov. 4.

The reports included one about elections in Kazakhstan and another about prosecutors dropping charges against Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov's son, who was accused of killing a pedestrian with his car, Ms. Romanova said.

In another example of what she called censorship, Ms. Romanova said, a report about a football team of homeless men from St. Petersburg traveling to Ireland to defend its title in the world homeless soccer championship was withdrawn by the new management.

"It was removed with the words, 'There are no homeless people in St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is rich, it is the city of the president,' " she said.

Mr. Ordzhonikidze told the Interfax news agency, "I didn't give anyone any orders to remove any reports."

Ralph Siebenaler, an RTL executive who has helped develop the group's stations in Central and Eastern Europe and was appointed chief executive of REN-TV, did not intervene, Ms. Romanova said.

Mr. Siebenaler said in an e-mail message: "When you have a change of management in a company, it happens unfortunately that parts of the former management team do not get along with the new team."

He added, "As news does not lie in my sphere of responsibilities in the channel, I do not want to openly comment about the acts and deeds of the people involved."