Daily Times

The English language Moscow News newspaper does not worry much about censorship. It goes for the jugular on a regular basis. However, it is doubtful if President Vladimir Putin gives it a thought. Its audience is almost entirely expatriate businessmen, diplomats and journalists. For the Russian-language papers and broadcasting channels it is a different story. Over recent years, the state has taken over more and more. Still there are chinks of light — sizeable ones — although, admittedly, Putin could shut these off if he wanted to. One of these is the internet, which suffers only from the censorship of a handful of personal sites and would be impossible to stifle completely given the way “close-downs” can be circumvented.

A contributor to The Moscow News made a good point: 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. However, 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.

The editor of the radio station Ekho (Echo), Alexey Venedikhov, points out that the website of the station gets 3,500,000 clicks each day. Critics praise the website for its quality. The internet aside, critical media institutions exist. Ekho is one, broadcasting right across Russia, reaching 43 major cities (but not the countryside). It exhibits an enormous amount of freedom. I asked Venedikhov why they are so free. “We provide information not just to the public but to top officials who tell me they listen. One example is the government learning from Ekho about a secret cemetery in Ukraine where recently Russian troops were found buried. “Most important, I have a personal relationship with Putin. I meet with him privately three or four times a year, although this year just once. We have an open discussion about everything. Putin has said publically that he is not against Ekho. So, the whole country knows that. We are a medicine for Russia.”

Ekho covers Ukraine in depth. Besides giving Ukrainian leaders and foreign critics, including US officials a platform, it uncovers the goings on inside the Ukraine of Russian soldiers and citizens. It covered the Malaysian airliner downing and told its audience about the likelihood that the separatists did that with a weapon that came from Russia.

Ekho, like a number of other free publications, has part US ownership; in its case it is 33 percent. Likewise, the independently minded business paper Vedeomosti has a large slice of foreign ownership, including The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. A new media law that will come into effect in two years’ time will lower the permitted foreign ownership from 33 percent to 20 percent. In the US, it is 25 percent, which is why Rupert Murdoch changed his nationality from Australian to US. Vendedikov is confident he can deal with the problem.

Another very independent voice on the media landscape is the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, founded in part by the ex-president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who used his Nobel Peace Prize money to help launch it. Today, 51 percent of its ownership is in the hands of its journalists. Six of its journalists have been murdered, including Anna Politkovskaya who raised Putin’s wrath for the way she reported on the war in Crimea. Some say that since then it treads a little more warily.

Even the major television stations that follow the state line (some smaller ones do not) have their openings that allow in some outside light. On this visit, driving 150 kilometres from Moscow, we stopped for petrol. In the café, the 24-hour news channel was switched on, reporting the annual Valdai Discussion Club where Putin shares the platform with western critics. I watched the former French prime minister, Dominque de Villepin, talk about Ukraine. In a peasant’s house where we stopped to buy cheese the farmer was watching the same event on Star Television.

And what about the speck in our own eye? In many western countries, television is partly under the thumb of governments. In France, three of its major television channels are state owned. When Berlusconi was president of Italy nearly all TV media was under his control. In Japan, a friend of the prime minister has recently been appointed head of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). He stressed that the station should adhere to the government line. In the US, Murdoch’s Fox TV broadcasts the Republicans’ every thought.

This is not to excuse Russia, only to understand it.

The writer has been a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years and author of the much acclaimed new book, Conundrums of Humanity — the Big Foreign Policy Questions of Our Age. He may be contacted at jonathanpower95@gmail.com