Russian Freedom Of The Press Has Come A Long Way Since Soviet Times -- And the Country Needs To Be Given Credit For That -- But Its Political Leaders Still Haven’t Grown That Thick Skin They Need To Govern In A Truly Democratic Society

Philip M. Stone June 11, 2006

Until the very last minute the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) admitted some of its membership objected to its annual meeting that concluded last week from being held in Moscow. It was right to go there, and it took a very gutsy WAN to tell President Putin inside his own Kremlin Palace in front of the world that he and his government needed to do more to ensure true press freedom. As good an example of free speech as one could demonstrate.
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But to this writer, who had not returned to Russia since serving briefly as a foreign correspondent in the mid 1970s, the difference today compared to then is like day and night. Unrecognizable is the word that most comes to mind, and that goes for the Russian media, too.

Never would one have dreamed 30 years ago that right there on one corner of Red Square would be the retail shops for Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Or there would be huge, full-building size billboards  for European luxury goods and Japanese cars, rather then extolling the Russian state, facing the Kremlin walls. And those eight-lane highways that had previously carried mostly large black official limousines and an occasional military truck are now clogged morning, noon, and night in what must be one of the world’s most continuous traffic jams.

And styles are very different. For women, for instance, who in Soviet times could afford very little fashion style, the “uniform” today seems to be stiletto heels, jeans – but no ordinary jeans, these are obviously cut just right and expensive -- and a jacket that in no way matches the jeans but neatly offsets the waist and chest from the legs. Expensive fashion, expensive cars, and homes that resemble palaces are very much the vogue of the very rich. When Ferrari opened a dealership within weeks it had sold out its allocation for the next three years.

And Moscow friends warned to not even think of going shopping for prices were so much higher when compared to other European capitals, and intentionally so. The best way to describe the buying psyche is from this popular joke: Two Russian friends meet on the street and admire one another’s ties. “How much did you pay for yours,” one asked the other. Proudly he answered “$100”. “You idiot,” said the other, “I paid $300 for mine.”

It is into this new society that Russia’s press has moved forward. At times with two or three steps forward followed by a step or two back, but moving all the same. Is it where it needs to be? No. Will it get there? An open question. The politicians all say the right words about press freedom, but their actions don’t comply.

They obviously don’t like it when the press goes after them or their policies, and they try various means to stop the criticism.  It is not so much that the press doesn’t want to move forward; it is more that those ruling politicians still haven’t grown the thick skins politicians need when serving the people in a truly free democratic society.

And no matter how much Kremlin officials may say privately that the Russian press is still immature and not ready to accept the responsibilities inherent in a true democratic media, the same could also be said for those politicians – they still can’t get used to being criticized and they have taken steps to stop such criticism wherever they could.

Four particular media stories just last week alone when taken together tell the true story of Russia’s media today.

The first story involves WAN itself. President Gavin O’Reilly in his keynote address in the Kremlin auditorium where the Soviet Union held its annual communist party meetings really gave chapter and verse to President Vladimir Putin on what was wrong with Russian press freedom and what Putin needed to do to fix it.

Putin’s response was mostly to ignore what O’Reilly said and to claim how much the Russian Federation promotes press freedom, but he did remind his guests of the history of the auditorium they were meeting in --once called the Palace of the Congresses of the Communist Party -- and said that such a discussion could not have taken place 15 years ago. That alone, he says, shows how much Russia has progressed. He also gave as an example of how the press is flourishing that 140 new media outlets were registered in the Nizhny Novgorod region alone over the last year, saying that “with this kind of growth, there is no way the state could control everything, even if it wanted to.”

But what happened before O’Reilly gave his speech? According to WAN nothing, but according to the independent Kommersant newspaper, one of the three general partners of the WAN conference, the opening ceremony almost didn’t happen because the Kremlin objected to what O’Reilly was going to say.

The newspaper reported, “A source in the Russian presidential administration told Kommersant that O'Reilly's speech will be delivered in a heavily edited version, with much of the strong wording insisted on by publishers from the United States, The Netherlands and Sweden toned down and politically-colored commentary about ‘disdain for democratic values,’ ‘a return to totalitarianism’ and Russia's unfitness for membership in the G8 removed altogether.

“That was achieved after the Kremlin threatened to call off the congress or at least deprive it of its most important audience member. The report was thus conciliated with Russian authorities at the last moment. A source close to the newsmen said that they felt compelled to insure Putin's attendance at any price to maintain the profile of the event.”

 And while Putin did indeed show up, he was about two hours late for reasons that were not explained..

WAN and O’Reilly vehemently denied the Kommersant story. “I had the speech on my computer, and did not discuss it with anyone in the Kremlin or anywhere elsewhere,” O’Reilly said.

One would doubt very much that WAN would succumb to the pressures described. Therefore, did Kommersant make up its story or did the Kremlin deliberately mislead it in a leak as a way to warn those who would believe the story that it had the power to pressure the world’s media into submission, not just the Russian media? Whatever the answer, it’s a good example of what goes on.

The second incident has to do with the English language Moscow Times newspaper that had been asked by the Russian Guild of Print Publishers to produce a magazine to be given out at WAN called, “Russia, beyond the Headlines.”

According to editor Lynn Berry, “A week after the 32-page magazine was completed and sent to the printer we got an urgent phone call. Some of the material was a problem for certain people in the government. A late-night meeting was called.”

She explained that pictures of the Moscow mayor and the prime minister were changed to be somewhat more flattering, other things they didn’t change, but then they hit a brick wall on something that the officials considered non-negotiable.

“At issue was a page showing nine things at which Russia was first in the world: first in policemen per capita, first in domesticated reindeer, first in snorkeling, first in commercial space flights, first in diamond extraction, first in import of kangaroo meat. You get the idea. The problem was that each ‘first’ was accompanied by an illustration and in each illustration there was President Vladimir Putin, with a reindeer on his lap, flying through space, eating kangaroo meat.

“At the paper I wouldn’t pull a piece under pressure. But in this case we pulled the page. For them it was important. For us it wasn’t. It was only cartoons,” she wrote for an article in her newspaper.

So, no having fun with President Putin! And, of course it leaves open the question of what would have happened to the publication if the cartoons were not pulled. It’s really a silly incident, but it goes to show very well how the senior politicians and those around them still have not developed that thick skin to be the butt of humor and criticism so important within a democratic society. No one says it is fun to be the subject of cartoons and the like, but in a democratic society it comes with the territory.

And then there was Mikail Gorbachev’s announcement that he is becoming a newspaper publisher. Gorbachev is taking a 10% stake and billionaire Member of Parliament Alexander Lebedev is buying 39% of Novaya Gazeta. It is thought Gorbachev’s main purpose at the newspaper will be to protect it from political/governmental pressures.

It’s an interesting buy for Gorbachev, -- he has had a close relationship with the newspaper since its founding in the early 1990s, helping to fund it with some of his Nobel Peace Prize money but it has run into hard financial times lately, cutting back from being a daily to twice weekly. It is thought Gorbachev’s main duty will be to help preserve the newspaper’s independent line and ward off Kremlin pressure.

But will he be able to do do that? The newspaper is particularly critical of Moscow’s Chechnaya policies, the Kremlin is extremely sensitive to such criticism and yet Gorbachev says he fully supports Putin’s policies. Something will have to give.

Dmitry Muratov, the paper’s deputy editor, noted that the newspaper will continue to write about government corruption and say what it really thinks. “Therefore Mr. Gorbachev has bought himself an enormous headache,” he said.

But since Lebedev is staunchly pro-Kremlin it didn’t take long for Russian media commentators to say they believed this was yet another move to shut down an independent line. “This was the last island of independent opinion, but now trust in the publication will go down. People will say, ‘Is that Lebedev’s newspaper,’” according to Vladimir Kara-Murza, a contributor to Novaya Gazeta and at host of independent satellite TV station RTV1.

And there is little faith that Gorbachev could protect the newspaper from political pressure. It was for that same mission that he became head of the public council for independent NTV television in 2000, and yet a year later it was bought by energy giant Gazprom, putting its ownership under state control.

If that wasn’t enough, all week the media was abuzz at another big possible newspaper sale – that oligarch Roman Abramovich who has very good relations with the Kremlin – according to Forbes he is the richest Russian and the 11th richest person in the world -- is negotiating to buy Kommersant, one of the last major independent newspapers.  The newspaper is highly critical of the Kremlin and is a powerful independent voice in the country. Some reports said the deal was already done for around $120 million, other reports said the newspaper was not for sale.

Alexei Simonov, head of the Glastnost Defense Foundation summarized the situation. “Kommersant is a profitable newspaper. There are two reasons for buying it -- either to make it better, or to influence its editorial policy. I don’t understand how Ambromovich could improve the newspaper, so for this reason I guess that what he would want is to change the editorial policy.”

And that is the growing fear for Russian press freedom. That one way or another the Kremlin gains control over the media either by state-owned companies scooping up media properties or having them privately bought by those who will ensure policies friendly to the Kremlin.

And what does this all really mean to press freedom and the people’s right to know everything going on. Well, take O’Reilly’s speech in the Kremlin. The state-controlled media didn’t mention what O’Reilly had to say but Parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov was widely quoted.

He said that WAN’s holding its congress in Moscow was “recognition by the world newspaper community of the democratic gains that Russia has made over the past ten years, a main participant of which has been the Russian press.”

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When Publishers and Editors Disagree There Is Usually Just One Outcome - October 3, 2006

It has only been one month since Kommersant, one of Russia’s leading newspapers, has had a new publisher and fears of how independent the newspaper would remain are already being realized ñ the chief editor has quit over “different views on how the publishing house should be developed.”

Out goes Vladislav Borodulin. Reason: a front-page article about the son of the Federal Security Chief who got a greased transfer from the security agency to the state-owned Rosneft Oil Company. Oligarchs like new publisher Alisher Vasilyev apparently donít think those types of stories serve any useful purpose.

In comes former editor Andrei Vasilyev who is said to be very friendly with the head of the Kremlin’s press service.

The new editor has made all the right noises about keeping Kommersant as an independent paper and he will not allow it to become a political weapon, but as the saying goes, the proof will be in the pudding.

WAN Tells Russian Newspapers They Have Vibrant Future Ahead - September 28, 2006

Returning to Russia just three months after its annual Congress in Moscow where it told President Vladimir Putin that his government should keep its hands off the press, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has told Russian publishers they have a bright future ahead as long as the government doesn’t interfere.

WAN CEO Timothy Balding told a meeting organized by the Russian Guild of Press Publishers, “Russia today is ripe for a renaissance of newspapers. There are tremendous opportunities for continuing growth. You have a great and vibrant future ahead of you, particularly if your government and other power groups leave you alone to publish and edit your newspapers with the sole imperative of serving your readers and their interests.”

He noted there was plenty of room for growth since Russian newspaper circulation lagged behind several countries in East Europe.  In Russia, he said, there are only 24 buyers of newspapers per thousand adults, whereas in the Czech Republic it is 175 buyers, Hungary has 139 and Poland is at 84.

Kommersant Sold To Kremlin Ally - September 3, 2006

Alisher Usmanov has bought the ZAO Kommersant Publishing House for a price thought to be somewhere between $200 million to $350 million. The publishing house was expected to report a  $15 million profit this year based on a turnover of $70.4 million.

Usmanov is general director of Gazprominvestholding, a subsidiary of the state-owned Gazprom, which itself has brought several prominent media under its (state) umbrella.  Usmanov has a wide variety of business interests in Russia and has been allowed to operate quite freely giving rise to the suggestion he is in favor in the Kremlin where they will see this now fiercely independent newspaper within a safe pair of political hands.

“No one asked me to buy the publisher, although I should say that my purchase of it was not against the wishes of the authorities,” Usmanov told Kommersant reporters.

Back in June rumors were rife that Roman Abramovich, considered to be Russia’s richest man and who has an excellent relationship with the Kremlin, was trying to buy the newspaper for around $120 million.

Such purchases in Russia are usually seen with a view of how it will directly politically benefit the buyer. The newspaper “can be used for political influence or lobbying his business interests, including fighting with competitors," Rusian Taglev, director of media research for TNS Gallup Media, told the newspaper.