Media freedom in Russia

2008 RWB press freedom rankings

  Free

  Not Free

The issue of the freedom of the press in Russia involves both the ability of directors of mass media outlets to carry out independent policy and the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outer pressure. Mass media in Russia include television and radio channels, periodicals, and Internet media, which according to the laws of Russian Federation may be either a state or a private property.

Legal position

Freedom of the press is provided by the Constitution of Russia:

Article 29

1. Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of ideas and speech.
2. The propaganda or agitation instigating social, racial, national or religious hatred and strife shall not be allowed. The propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic supremacy shall be banned.
3. No one may be forced to express his views and convictions or to reject them.
4. Everyone shall have the right to freely look for, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information by any legal way. The list of data comprising state secrets shall be determined by a federal law.

5. The freedom of mass communication shall be guaranteed. Censorship shall be banned.

The important law in context of the media freedom is the 1991 Law "On mass media", that guarantees freedom of expression for media, journalists' rights and citizens' right for information.

As reported by Alvaro Gil-Robles, the first Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe after his visit to Russia in 2004,

The law has a strong democratic character. It was very quickly put into practice and fostered the development of media freedom. It prompted an increase in the number of publications and television and radio channels, initially representing all the political currents in Russian society. The different national minorities have also taken up this tool, which is already broadly used to disseminate languages and cultures. Well adjusted to by Russian society, this law remains a key text and gaurantor for Russia's media. I was told repeatedly in numerous conversations with representatives of the media, both journalists and media-owners, that, to safeguard media freedom, the most important thing was to keep the law as it was and to resist certain calls to have it revised, which were expressed from time to time in the corridors of the Duma.

Trends

1990s and before

As noted by Gil-Robles, the process of democratization of the totalitarian Soviet Union started with the policy of Glasnost, "meaning openness or freedom of speech". That policy is still regarded within the Russian society as one of the "most precious achievements" of Perestroika, and the "vast majority of people are not willing to accept any kind of change to it". Gil-Robles noted, that the "long-awaited" 1991 Law on Mass Media "had been fought for since the beginning of glasnost not only by journalists and civil society but also by Russian society as a whole".

The contemporary state of media freedom, as Gil-Robles recognized, follows on from "the proactive policy pursued by the Russian authorities at the beginning of the 1990s". During the 1990s the Russian society "went through a period of rapid development of the traditional media".

2000s

In 1997 there were just over 21,000 registered periodicals, virtually no electronic media, and just under 100 television companies, more than half of which were owned by the state. As of 2006 there were more than 58,000 periodicals, 14,000 electronic media, and 5,500 broadcasting companies, and the states share in the newspaper and journal market is estimated to be less than 10%. Its share in electronic media is even smaller.

As reported by Gil-Robles,

Even so, some worrying trends have emerged in recent years. According to international journalists' associations, the situation is taking a turn for the worse. A number of laws and provisions adopted in the general context of combating terrorism restrict freedom of speech and do away with the guarantees that are vital to the work of journalists in a democracy. This regrettable development has not been without victims, with a number of television companies, radio channels and newspapers being closed down. In addition, ownership changes for some media have brought them under the control of the State or of companies in which the State is the main shareholder. Finally, Russia counts amongst the countries in which attacks and acts of violence against journalists have noticeable risen in recent years.

As stated by BBC, two of the three main federal channels Channel One and Russia TV are controlled by the government controls while state-controlled energy giant Gazprom owns NTV.

In 2007, a report by professor of politics Nicolai N. Petro asserted that foreign companies owned shares in over half of all Russian broadcasting companies and not the state. He claimed that critics concentrated solely on national television media, while "detailed statistics also demolish the myth that Putin dominates national television and allows no critical reporting". In the same report, Petro declared that for the first time in modern Russian history independent media had become profitable.

In 2008, Russia was ranked 141st (out of 173 countries) with a score of 47.5 on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. A score of 0 signifies most free, while 100 signifies least free.

In 2006 Vladimir Putin commented that in the period of 1990s freedom of press in Russia "was indeed under threat, not from the former state ideology that once held a monopoly on expression, but from the dictates of oligarchic capital". [4] Journalist Yevgeniya Albats has said: "Of course in the 1990s there were restrictions on freedom of expression but, due to the fact that the media belonged to different business structures, despite influence being exerted pluralism was preserved." [5] When asked about media freedom in 2006 interview with NBC TV channel, Putin replied: "We have more than 3,500 television and radio companies here in Russia and state participation in them is decreasing with every passing year. As for print media, there are more than 40,000 publications and we could not control them all even if we wanted to."

In 2004 Gil-Robles systematically met a number of local and regional journalists in regions he visited. He reported: "I was impressed by the strong motivation of the journalists, their keenness to preserve and reinforce their rights and their everyday efforts to uphold freedom of expression. I also realised how closely media professionals associate freedom of the media with the health of democracy in general."

Assaults on journalists

File:Anna politkovskaia paris.jpg

Posters with photo of journalist Anna Politkovskaya assassinated in Moscow in 2006. While a partial progress, the case is not yet solved.

Since the early 1990s, a number of Russian reporters who have covered the situation in Chechnya, contentious stories on organized crime, state and administrative officials, and large businesses have been killed. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since 1992, 50 journalists have been murdered for their professional activity in Russia (which made it the third deadliest country for journalist in 1992-2006 period): 30 journalists from 1993 to 2000, and 20 journalists since 2000.

According to Glasnost Defence Foundation, there were 9 cases of suspicious deaths of journalists in 2006, as well as 59 assaults on journalists, and 12 attacks on editorial offices. In 2005, the list of all cases included 7 deaths, 63 assaults, 12 attacks on editorial offices, 23 incidents of censorship, 42 criminal prosecutions, 11 illegal layoffs, 47 cases of detention by militsiya, 382 lawsuits, 233 cases of obstruction, 23 closings of editorial offices, 10 evictions, 28 confiscations of printed production, 23 cases of stopping broadcasting, 38 refusals to distribute or print production, 25 acts of intimidation, and 344 other violations of Russian journalist's rights.

On October 7, 2006, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, well known for her criticisms of Russia's actions in Chechnya and the pro-Russia Chechen government, was shot in the lobby of her apartment building. The death of this Russian journalist triggered an outcry of criticism of Russia in the Western media, with accusations that, at best, Putin has failed to protect the country's new independent media.

Journalist protection laws

A new law to be implemented at the beginning of 2009 will allow reporters investigating corruption in Russia to be protected. Under new legislation, they will be able to apply for special protection, like court witnesses. The new law is part of a grander national plan to fight corruption in Russia, an area that President Dmitry Medvedev has focused much of his attention on.

Police raids

On June 19, 2006, Russian police raided the Educated Media Foundation, a non-governmental organization that receives U.S. funding, seizing documents and equipment in a search its director said was likely linked to the government's growing distaste for Western-funded NGOs.

Moscow-based media

Print media

Following his 2004 visit to Russia Gil-Robles reported, "At the meeting organised with the editors-in-chief of the major Russian newspapers, I noted the broadly shared opinion that freedom of speech has remained substantial since 1991. It is true that there have been several recent reports of pressure on journalists."

The highest ranked difficulty mentioned was the financial situation of the press. Most of the Moscow-based newspapers seek diverse sources of funding, "so that their independence will not be jeopardised and they will not have to turn to either the State or private shareholders, which are more often than not big industrial groups."

Another specific problem was mentioned in relation to the press distribution outside the capital. While subscriptions to press was reliable in the capitals, difficulties with press subscriptions arose "in relation to other towns and cities, especially those in Siberia and the Far East":

This situation was partly due to the great distance between these regions and the capital. But we were also told that, in some cities, the postal services followed instructions from the regional authorities to delay distribution of a given newspaper because of how journalists had reported the actions of a given authority. Whilst it is difficult to imagine such unacceptable behaviour, it must, wherever might occur, be ceased forthwith.

Television and radio

See also List of Russian-language television channels

Gil-Robles noted, that "Television and radio find themselves in a quite different situation to that of the press, and their loss of independence raises a number of issues."

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, "All three major television networks are now in the hands of Kremlin loyalists." [6] Indeed, while "Сhannel Russia" was state-owned since its foundation in 1991, major shareholders of ORT and NTV (Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, respectively) sold their stocks to the government and Gazprom in 2000-2001. Moreover, TV6, a media outlet owned by Berezovsky, was closed in 2002 using a laws hole. In 2003 TVS channel which was formed mainly of former NTV and TV6 was closed due to financial problems.

Gil-Robles commented:

"It is true that these developments are partly due to economic processes, as the representatives of the authorities pointed out, but I believe that they reflect above all a taking of control of popular television and radio stations, whose broad coverage permits a degree of critical information to reach the majority of the population throughout the country."

Along with that, plenty of media outlets actively develop now while state participation in them is minimal . Private TV networks REN TV and TV Center which cover 80% and 64% of population respectively, broadcast independent analytical programms like "25th hour", "Week" with Marianna Maksimovskaya, "Postscriptum", "Moment of truth". REN TV remains perhaps the only major TV outlet with liberal views, easily unveiling themas of censorship or showing interviews with leaders of Other Russia.

As reported by Clifford J. Levy in New York Times article, all Putin's opponents are being made to vanish from Russian TV. They are blacklisted and not allowed to appear in TV shows. In one example, a presentation critical of Putin's policies has been digitally erased . As reported by Russian scientist Sergey L. Lopatnikov, information about "black lists" is nonsense; an argument was made that not less than 35-40% of participants of NTV-aired talk show "At a barrier" hosted by Vladimir Solovyov during the last two years represented the opposition (including Novodvorskaya, Ivanenko, Nemtsov, Hakamada); from January to May 2008, overt adversaries of Vladimir Putin participated in 9 of 16 (more than 50%) issues of the talk show [7].

Gil-Robles also reported:

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the work of the "Echo of Moscow" radio channel, which is internationally renowned and also a reference within the country itself. I have known this radio station for years and have always appreciated the frankness and professionalism of its journalists. It is never easy to reply to their direct questions but all its interviewees receive equal treatment, and this inspires respect.

Internet

Following his visit to Russia in 2004, Gil-Robles noted high quality of news and reaction speed of Russia's electronic media. Virtually all the main newspapers were available on-line, some even opting for Web as a sole information outlet. Russia's press agencies (including the most important Ria-Novosti and Itar-Tass) were also well represented in the Web. However, only a minority (8% of the population) had Internet access that time.

In May 2008, some 32.7 million users in Russia had continuous access to the internet, what accounted for internet penetration of almost 30%.

As reported by Agence France-Presse, "The Internet is the freest area of the media in Russia, where almost all television and many newspapers are under formal or unofficial government control".

Russia wasn't included in the list of 12 "Enemies of the Internet", prepared by the Reporters Without Borders in March 2009.

As reported by Kirill Pankratov in April 2009 in The Moscow Times,

Even discounting the chaotic nature of the web, there is plenty of Russian-language material on political and social issues that is well-written and represents a wide range of views. This does not mean, though, that most Russians are well-informed of the important political and social issues of today. But this is largely a matter of personal choice, not government restrictions. If somebody is too lazy to make just a few clicks to read and become aware of various issues and points of view, maybe he deserves to be fed bland, one-sided government propaganda.

Censoring Wikipedias

Internet operations by Russian secret police stretched out even to health-related issues of safer sexual behaviour widely accepted in the West and world-known practices but not accepted by Authorities and Russian Orthodox Church in their view of should-be morals. In doing so they impose restriction on disseminating of international health-related safer-sex information and surpassing their Chinese colleagues. Translation into Russian of «en:Teabagging» article was deleted under the pretext of absence in the great Russian language of any equivalent for ”tea bag” and insufficient (just 20!) references in the «low quality » English article. International interference made it possible to restore the article for the Russian Wikipedia. Lately, so-called «administrators of Russian Wikipedia» have protracted for 45 days deletion of translations into Russsian of two articles of «en:Masturbation» and «en:Fingering» . Meanwhile and nevertheless, about 31,500 russian users chanced to have read the translation before its deletion has happened. Not knowing anything in medicine, souring STD and HIV incidence rates the so-called administrators of Russian Wikipedia pass their judgement on «low quality » of medical articles in English Wikipedia.

Controversies

Magomed Yevloyev, editor of Ingushetia.org, a vocal critic of the region's administration, was murdered in August, 2008.

At the background of December 2008 demonstrations in Vladivostok, it was reported by Kontury news website that FSB officers addressed moderators of the ru_auto Internet community with a request to remove stories about the Vladivostok protests. The major reason, as reported by a moderator of the resource, was that a number of repeating posts with the information about protests worsened some sort of statistics on people's attitudes. The moderator in question requested bloggers to publish only unique posts about protest actions.

SORM

A System of Ensuring Investigative Activity, SORM, an amendment signed into law by Putin. SORM allowed law enforcement bodies to monitor Internet traffic and required ISPs to assist law enforcement in their investigations. In late 2000, Russian Supreme Court ruled that the law enforcement bodies are required to obtain a warrant and inform ISPs when law enforcement agents were using the system. Similar laws exist in most developed countries with large internet populations.

Regional media

Following his visit to Russia in 2004, Gil-Robles reported:

The press is highly developed in the regions. Russians have long been great readers of newspapers, averaging between one and two a day. I was struck by the number of newsstands and vendors in all manner of places - kiosks, stations, bus-stops, streets - and by the strong distribution of regional press. The very widespread practice of subscription is further evidence of the press' popularity. Newspapers remain affordable and this partly explains the obvious enthusiasm shown by the great majority of Russians.

Speaking about the obstacles that make that diversity "being tested somewhat", Gil-Robles noted "deliberate attempts to restrict the media's freedom of expression", and the financial issues that reflect "a difficult or in some cases disastrous economic situation". He reported:

It seems to be increasingly the case that regional authorities agree to fund regional press in return for favourable treatment from it, with the result that journalists can be hampered in their work by increasingly close ties between the media and local authorities.

According to Gil-Robles: "Finally, the only media to remain relatively independent in the regions are the big Moscow-based dailies, most of which carry a regional insert. As they are funded by their publishing group, they maintain a greater objectivity as regards regional authorities."

Media in the Sverdlovsk region

Gil-Robles reported:

I must say that I was impressed by the sheer number of local media in the region. Not even counting the printed press, sixteen regional television channels is a surprising figure. I was also told that the different channels follow very different editorial lines and sometimes even take up radically opposed positions. I regard this as a fine example of media freedom, which reflects the healthy administration of democracy in the region overall. It seems that the media have no hesitation in criticising the Governor and his administration without any fear of repression.

As an issue, Gil-Robles noted the "broadcasting ban on the private television and radio company Telekon" in 2004. As reported on the Telekon's website, its radio and television broadcast was re-established in August 2007.

A major TV company of the Sverdlovsk region is TAU ("Television Agency of Ural"). That company won a prestigeous Russian TV award TEFI in 1999. The daily news program "Nine and a half" broadcast by this channel is viewed by 1/4 of the Yekaterinburg population, and its popularity contests that of a news program of federal TV network ORT.

Censorship

According to journalist Maxim Kononenko, "People invent censorship for themselves, and what happens on some TV channels, some newspapers, happens not because Putin dials them and says: No, this mustn't go. But because their bosses are fools." However, political scientist Yevgenia Albats in interview with Eduard Steiner has disputed this assertion: "Today the directors of the television channels and the newspapers are invited every Thursday into the Kremlin office of the deputy head of administration, Vladislav Surkov to learn what news should be presented, and where. Journalists are bought with enormous salaries. In discussions they tell us then how horrible it is to work in the state television service." [8].

According to 2005 research conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), the number of Russians who approve of censorship on TV has grown in a year from 63% to 82%; sociologists believe that Russians are not voting in favor of press freedom suppression, but rather for expulsion of ethically doubtful material (such as scenes of violence and sex: 57% for restricting of violence/ sex depiction on TV, 30% for ban of fraudelent businesses ads; and 24% for products for sex ads and 'criminal way of life propaganda' films).

Alexei Bayer, writing for the opposition-minded Moscow Times newspaper, said, that aside from the main television channels, journalists in Russia can generally write whatever they wish and criticize and ridicule even topmost officials.

Alvaro Gil-Robles said in the 2005 interview to the Echo of Moscow radio station: "One shouldn't forget, that with all the difficulties one need to recognize that the press in Russia is free as a whole. Because of the fact that I and you are currently talking at the radio 'Echo of Moscow' in a direct broadcast without any censorship whatsoever, this also speaks about the press freedom."

Freedom House report

Freedom House scores nations on political freedom.

  Free

  Partly Free

  Not Free

Draft version of the 2007 report of Freedom House "Freedom of the Press" in Russia states that:

"Media freedom was further curtailed in 2006 as President Vladimir Putin’s government passed legislation restricting news reporting and journalists were subjected to physical violence and intimidation ...

Despite public objections, Russia’s parliament also passed amendments to the Law on Fighting Extremist Activity, which Putin then signed in July. The measure expanded the definition of extremism to include media criticism of public officials, and authorized up to three years’ imprisonment for journalists as well as the suspension or closure of their publications if they were convicted ...

Authorities continued to exert influence on media outlets and determine news content in 2006. The state owns or controls significant stakes in the country’s three main national television networks: Channel One, Rossiya, and NTV ...

During 2006, journalists continued to face criminal libel charges for printing and broadcasting statements that were unfavorable to public officials. Criminal courts also sentenced several journalists on charges of “inciting racial hatred” for publicizing controversial events in Chechnya. Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, was convicted of the offense in February after publishing statements by leading Chechen separatists like the late Aslan Maskhadov. He received a suspended prison sentence and probation, but his conviction allowed the government to shutter his organization in October under a provision of the new NGO law. It remained open, with appeals pending, at year’s end. Boris Stomakhin of the monthly Radikalnaya Politika, who has written various critical articles on Russia’s actions in Chechnya, was sentenced in November to five years in prison ....

The international media community expressed its shock at the October murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was renowned for her independent reporting about abuses committed in the war in Chechnya. Other journalists who were killed in 2006—likely for reasons tied to their work, according to media watchdogs—included Ilya Zimin, a correspondent for the national television station NTV; Vagif Kochetkov, a correspondent for the Moscow daily Trud and columnist for the Tula paper Tulskii Molodoi Kommunar; Yevgeny Gerasimenko, a correspondent for the Saratov independent weekly Saratovksy Rasklad; and Anatoly Voronin, deputy director of the Russian news agency Itar-Tass ....

With online media developing and 16 percent of the population now online, the government also harassed some of Russia’s leading news websites. For example, officials accused Pravda.ru, Bankfax.ru, and Gazeta.ru of spreading extremist ideas, and fined the editor of the internet publication Kursiv for publishing an “offensive” article about Putin."

While Russia maintained "partly free" status of its media in the reports of the 1990s, it recently deteriorated back to "not free".

The annual Freedom in the World report reportedly caused a real uproar in Russia. The Foreign Ministry declined to comment, calling the findings in the report "absurd". Ella Pamfilova, head of the presidential council on civil society institutions and human rights, told Kommersant that it is former CIA employees who shape Freedom House’s ideology. But Russian human rights activists consider the Freedom House’s conclusions quite fair.

Russian journalist Andrey Kuznetsov criticized factual accuracy of the draft version of the report . Considering the amendments to Russian Law on Fighting Extremist Activity, the draft version of the report mistook "public slander of authorities" for "media criticism" (in a more recent report of Freedom house the correct term — public slander — was used and mentioned as allowing the authorities to use "unchecked power against its critics"). Kuznetsov claimed, that considering the journalists convicted "for publicizing controversial events in Chechnya" Freedom House mixed the guilty with the innocent ones: while Dmitrievsky only published statements of Maskhadov and Zakayev, Kuznetsov believes that the conviction of Boris Stomakhin could be justified .

According to Kuznetsov, the death of journalist Ilya Zimin was classified as murder on everyday grounds, the motive for murder of Kochetkov claimed as being robbery (although Kochetkov's father disagrees with this version of the investigation), Gerasimenko was murdered by a hobo (this murder was solved), and Anatoly Voronin was a business chief, rather than the deputy director of Itar-Tass. Kuznetsov claims that "only the murder of Politkovskaya may be directly tied to her unveiling articles about Chechnya. In all other cases it makes an impression that authors of the report simply composed death list of people having any relation to spread of information."

Considering "harassment of some of the Russia’s leading news websites", Kuznetsov clarified that all they got a precaution "on inadmissibility of propagation of extremism", and noted negligence of the report's authors who listed regional Altai server Bankfax.ru as a "leading news website" and placed in the list a "comical" case of chief editor of Kursiv fined for a moderate sum for satirical article 'Putin as phallic symbol of Russia'.

Kuznetsov concluded that "the situation with press freedom in Russia is for sure very far from ideal, and weighted and reasoned estimation of it could greatly facilitate its improvement. But the methodology of the authors of Freedom House report leaves open space for subjective treatments... Freedom house has carried out a vast research, but obvious flaws of the report slightly discredit the very idea of securing speech freedom as one of basic values of the humankind."

See also

• List of journalists killed in Russia
• Media of Russia
• NTV
• TV6
• TVS
• RTVi
• Glasnost