Re: On 'Nother Russia
- From: "Pēteris Cedriņš (Peteris Cedrins)" <cedrins@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 28 Dec 2005 17:17:37 -0800
>>From an article by Alexei Simonov, "The media as mouthpiece" -- posted
for educational purposes only:
The Great Terror
The government has played on the media's genetic fear of a return to
the 'Great Terror' of Soviet times. From time to time it touches that
chord, which is now becoming increasingly real to people, and hears in
response the tune that it wants to hear.
Consequently, what do we have? At federal level, only one channel that
does not slavishly follow instructions - or to put it more mildly
"signals" - from the government. Three channels - the First,
Russian and NTV - are all state-owned or owned by the private-state
company GazProm, and operate under precise government control,
exercised as a rule in weekly meetings between the channel heads and
representatives of the Presidential Administration.
The "Third" channel, which is financed and controlled by the Moscow
City Government, periodically bristles against national policies, but
is touchingly loyal to the Moscow government, that long ago lost its
rebellious streak and no longer has serious misgivings about running
along the official national track.
News on these four channels is all very similar. If not as close as
identical twins, it is like brothers and sisters who were born and
brought up in one home with the same clear, unambiguous values and
day-to-day codes of behaviour.
There is also a fairly influential channel, that does not have the
highest viewer ratings: REN-TV. It is known to maintain an element of
independence, but circumstances force it to look over its shoulder at
its siblings and not run too far ahead.
Live TV has to all intents and purposes been abolished on all channels
and any broadcasts on social issues that are likely to involve a clash
of wide-ranging opinion, pass through a censorship process, politely
but invariably called editing.
Federal publications allow themselves to express individual opinions
that diverge in this way or that from the official government view, but
they do so so politely and shyly, that they hardly make a ripple.
The independent media has shrunk - like Balzac's shagreen leather
finger - down to the newspaper Novaya gazeta and the radio station Ekho
Moskvy at federal level, and three or four dozen regional publications
with a collective print run of up to 500 thousand copies: a drop in the
ocean for Russia's 150 million population.
The uniqueness of Ekho Moskvy and to some extent the price of its
independence, is that it offers air space to the most die-hard
reactionaries as well as people with democratic views. It seems to me
that this is the pre-condition for its relative independence. But at
most it has three or 3.5 million listeners, which naturally is not a
critical mass that could meaningfully influence public opinion.
Some regional publishing ventures inspire hope. They have their own
print capacity and doggedly pursue their own regional policy,
step-by-step.
The never-ending stream of civil suits brought by politicians against
journalists across the Russian Federation is a sign that gaps in the
information shield are still being plugged. The state - i.e. all
echelons of government intent on creating a vertical chain of authority
- is still on the attack. But now its victims are not editorial teams
so much as individual journalists who speak out against the party line
and still have a platform to do so.
Our research has shown that up to 70% of material printed in the press
or broadcast on TV and radio, is about the government and its
representatives. Society with its range of views and civic initiatives
is on the periphery of what journalists care about. In conditions like
these it cannot play the slightest role in deciding questions that are
vital to the country.
It is perhaps premature to draw any conclusions from this, but the
implications today, I think, are self-evident.
http://www.indexonline.org/en/news/articles/2005/4/russia-the-media-as.shtml
.
- References:
- On 'Nother Russia
- From: Eugene Holman
- Re: On 'Nother Russia
- From: Peter
- On 'Nother Russia
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