Washington Post - 03.11.2002

The Washington Post

In Russia, Complacent About a Free Press

By Masha Lipman

MOSCOW -- During the past two years, Russia's largest privately owned media group, Media-MOST, has been destroyed. Its main asset, national TV channel NTV, has been put under government control. Another national broadcaster, TV-6, which had remained beyond the Kremlin's grip, was shut down.

So the government's recent takeover of radio station Ekho Moskvy, another Media-MOST asset, was simply a matter of time. The station managed to postpone the takeover, but after the closure of TV-6, Ekho Moskvy's position became dangerous when it offered shelter to the TV-6 team. Soon afterward, the disfavored TV-6 journalists were broadcasting on Ekho Moskvy, and shortly after that, the station was notified of the imminent takeover.

The chief editor of Ekho Moskvy, Alexei Venediktov, announced that he'd step down as Ekho's chief editor, and then made a bid for a new frequency, which he was not expected to receive, given his standing with the government. But surprisingly, the Ekho Moskvy team won a new frequency at auction, and Venediktov vows that his new station will pursue the same independent editorial policy the old one did for more than a decade. He has solid means to prevent government control: 70 percent of the new station's shares belong to the journalists of Ekho Moskvy.

How to explain this favorable development? Some say it's a demonstration of goodwill by the Kremlin, intended as minor compensation for past -- and possibly future -- crackdowns on media freedom. Some point to strife among various groups inside the Kremlin. Another factor may be Venediktov himself: a mercurial, indefatigable and politically savvy editor who has fought fiercely for his station's independence.

Whatever the reason, Venediktov has won a victory for all those who care about freedom of the press in Russia. But Ekho is a small outlet. It has an audience of a few hundred thousand -- negligible compared with the national TV channels, which may reach more than 100 million viewers. The Kremlin today, unlike the Communist Soviet state, does not seek to establish full control over every word. We still have newspapers and magazines (including my own news weekly), online publications and minor television outlets not controlled by the government. The Kremlin does not mind minor dissent, as long as it may send its own controlled message to the bulk of the Russian people.

Few in Russia doubt Ekho's victory was, in fact, a political decision. Ekho's journalists may be a highly professional and popular team, easily Russia's best news radio, but they would never have won the auctioned frequency without "permission" from the Kremlin.

It took the government two years to gain control of the media market. The Kremlin used a variety of intimidation techniques against two major media tycoons, Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky. Both have fled Russia and live abroad, the bulk of their media taken over by the government.

Having won this war and gotten rid of their two worst enemies, Kremlin officials can barely hide their triumph. In their public statements they shamelessly accuse the tycoons of crimes that have never been proven in court and brag about finally having conquered their nemeses. The tycoons "used the media to blackmail the government," President Vladimir Putin's aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky said recently in an interview with a state-owned news service. "They will no longer be a problem."

Deputy minister of the press Mikhail Seslavinsky, in a recent speech, described the battle between the Kremlin and the tycoons in ironic terms. The end result, according to Seslavinsky: In the sphere of the media "the complicated transition phase is over," and the media are "steadily moving ahead."

The Kremlin campaign against the two tycoons and their media has had a grave detrimental effect on the Russian media in general. Journalists have seen what happens to those the Kremlin regards as enemies. Most people in the media today know better than to antagonize the Kremlin. The result is overwhelming self-censorship and a serious decline of journalistic standards.

Seeking to increase its audience, radio Ekho Moskvy had established partnerships with quite a few provincial radio stations. As soon as it became clear Ekho Moskvy was in disfavor with the government, one provincial partner after another informed the station's management that it would stop using Ekho's programming. We love you guys, they would say, but we were advised to switch to a government-owned radio station.

The atmosphere in today's Russian media is largely marked by a desire to demonstrate loyalty to the government. This is a sharp contrast with Boris Yeltsin's days, when journalists enjoyed a high degree of freedom. (Today's Kremlin aides, including Yastrzhembsky, refer to those times as "a bacchanalia of press freedom.") Yeltsin himself, in one of his rare recent public appearances, said: "I tolerated any criticism, and today even a fair remark is hard to say aloud." The Democratic Assembly, an informal association of democratic parties and groups, gave a much more dramatic assessment of the situation: "There's no press freedom in today's Russia," says the opening line of its resolution issued in mid-February.

Yeltsin expanded and codified the freedom of the press originally granted by Mikhail Gorbachev. But "granted" is the important word here. The Russian people did not fight for a free press; it was, like other freedoms, given to the nation by the government, from "above." This may be one reason why today the Russian public looks on indifferently as the government subdues the press.

Venediktov may be allowed to broadcast on a new frequency, but his victory will never be solid until it is backed by public demand for a free press.

The writer, deputy editor of a Russian newsmagazine financed by Vladimir Gusinsky, writes a monthly column for The Post.