Freedom Forum - 07.27.2000

 

Free Press in Russia
How the election of President Vladimir Putin has affected Russian media

Freedom Forum International Division

Freedom Forum held a panel discussion July 27 about the latest developments in the Russian media and press. The panel, led by Susan Bennett, Director of the Freedom Forum’s Asian and European program, included Jamie Dettmer – Senior Editor of Insight Magazine and former Washington Times Russia Bureau Chief; Joyce Davis – Deputy Foreign Editor of Knight Ridder Newspapers; and Andrei Sitov – Washington Bureau Chief of ITAR-TASS, a Russian media group controlled and financed by the Russian government.

Before his election, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that “without a truly free media, Russian democracy will not survive.” However, since he became President, media conditions have deteriorated, particularly with the raid on Media-Most – the only independent media group in Russia – and the arrest of Media-Most owner Vladimir Goussinsky, as well as the earlier arrest and alleged beating of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky.  

Andrei Sitov of ITAR-TASS stated that, compared to the press under Soviet control, there is press freedom in modern Russia.  But compared to the American media and press, it does seem limited. In general, he claimed, there is freedom of press, but some media groups follow the lead of oligarchs or government officials. 

According to Jamie Dettmer of Insight Magazine, an individual with KGB training and techniques who wishes to turn the country into an authoritarian one is carefully ruling Russia. Under former President Boris Yeltsin’s leadership, Russia was committed to having a free press and steps toward that goal were taken. Since Putin’s election, there have been several steps backward instead of the promised leap forward.

Putin’s administration, Knight Ridder’s Joyce Davis said, has announced that it has to protect the state from the media, which explains the crackdown on people like Goussinsky and Babitsky. Other illustrations of government actions include causing media computer systems to malfunction and blocking utilities, halting television broadcasts, and harassing and intimidating journalists, both foreign and local.

“How much can free media free an unfree society,” Dettmer asked. Modern Russia has to face its Soviet past since it still affects the media there. There are no advertisements in newspapers and the government and oligarchs control the television since they help finance them.

Sitov believes that press freedom and its value must be preserved and understood in Russia. But the definitions of freedom in the United States and Russia differ. Russian newspapers do not earn any profits. It costs 105 billion rubles per year to publish all Russian newspapers, while the overall profit is only about 7 billion. According to Dettmer, “There won’t be free press [in Russia] until the media can rely on its readers, listeners and viewers” for financial support. Once the media is no longer economically depended on government or oligarchs, then the press will be free.

To the question of how Russia expects to develop and achieve democracy with the government restricting human rights and free press – two basic components of modern democracy – and threatening foreign journalists by not allowing them to register or revoking their licenses, Sitov replied: “We are going to take it one day at a time for the next 200 years, as it took here [in the United States]”. Sitov complained that Goussinsky and Babitsky have unjustifiably become the “poster boys” for media restrictions in Russia. He believes that foreign intentions in wanting to help the development of free press in Russia are more harmful than helpful. The Russian people have been misled by the illusion that reform in Russia is working and yielding results while the opposite is true, Sitov argued.

– Reported by Farhid Sedaghat-pour, NCSJ Intern