The promise of press freedom, like that of other democratic ideals, remains
unrealized seven years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Reflecting Russia's
imperfect grasp of democratic principles, President Boris Yeltsin complained
in a meeting with the directors of three national television channels, "We
[the government] have the right to ask you to carry out state policy."
While the press is vibrant and diverse, reporters and editors nonetheless
are buffeted by political and economic pressures, threats of physical violence,
assaults, and even murder. The media moguls, interested in using their holdings
as instruments of political and economic power, push employees directly and
indirectly toward self-censorship and bias. As Alexei Pankin, editor of the
trade magazine Sreda, noted, "The press can write the truth about
anybody, but not its owner." Officials, meanwhile, use bribes as carrots,
and libel suits and sometimes death threats as sticks to exact docility from
journalists. The public's response to this well-known dynamic is skepticism
about the reliability of the information it is receiving.
For those who dared to ignore the harassment and the threats, the murder
of Larisa Yudina was a chilling reminder of the ongoing dangers faced by
Russia's independent journalists. Despite repeated intimidation, the 53-year-old
editor of the opposition Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya continued
to investigate corrupt business practices by regional officials in the autonomous
republic of Kalmykia and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the republic's millionaire
president. Yudina was murdered in June outside the Kalmyk capital of Elista,
after leaving home to meet a source who promised to provide evidence for
her reports.
And in August, Anatoly Levin-Utkin, deputy editor of the St. Petersburg weekly Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya, was fatally beaten while
researching articles on local banks.
These assassinations highlight the pattern of killings that started with
the October 1994 murder of Dmitry Kholodov, a reporter for the popular
daily Moskovsky Komsomolets. Suspects were finally arrested this
year in the Kholodov murder, but this case, like that of other murdered Russian
journalists, has not been conclusively resolved.
Several journalists have survived brutal attacks. On May 27, Radio Titan,
the only independent station in the Bashkir Republic, was violently shut
down. Altaf Galeyev, the manager and news director, was jailed after police
raided the station, beating employees and arresting Galeyev and several
colleagues. The attack occurred after Radio Titan broadcast interviews with
several opposition candidates who were barred from running against incumbent
President Murtaza Rakhimov in the republic's June presidential elections.
At year's end, the trial of a journalist accused of espionage in connection
with his work remained unresolved. Grigory Pasko, a naval officer and military
reporter imprisoned in Vladivostok since 1997, faces charges of high treason
stemming from his publication of a series of articles in Russian and Japanese
media describing the environmental damage caused by nuclear waste from Russia's
deteriorating submarine fleet in the Far East.
It is no exaggeration to say that there is no press freedom in the secessionist
republic of Chechnya, whose status remains unclear despite its conflict with
Russian forces from 1994 to 1996. Local authorities have closed down the
region's television and radio stations, and newspapers still permitted to
operate face severe penalties for publishing articles deemed by officials
to be anti-government. Reporters from outside have stopped going into the
republic, because kidnappers have targeted foreign correspondents, often
holding them for ransom, and the Chechen government is either unable or unwilling
to control the problem. |
| Attacks on the Press in
Russia in 1998 |
| Date |
Journalist |
Incident |
| 08/21/98 |
Anatoly
Levin-Utkin, Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya |
Killed |
| 06/08/98 |
Larisa
Yudina, Sovetskaya Kalmykia Segodnya |
Killed |
| 05/27/98 |
Altaf
Galeyev, Radio Titan |
Imprisoned, Legal Action |
| 05/27/98 |
Lilia
Ismagilova, Radio Titan |
Harassed |
| 05/27/98 |
Staff
of Radio Titan |
Attacked, Harassed, Censored |
| 05/27/98 |
Altaf
Galeyev, Radio Titan |
Imprisoned, Legal Action |
| 05/27/98 |
Lilia
Ismagilova, Radio Titan |
Harassed |
| 05/27/98 |
Staff
of Radio Titan |
Attacked, Harassed, Censored |
| 03/13/98 |
Timur
Kukuyev,local M-5 television station, Makhachkala, Dagestan, ORT stringer |
Attacked, Threatened |
| 03/13/98 |
Yuri
Safronov, local M-5 television stateion, Makhachkala, Dagestan, ORT
stringer |
Attacked |
|
|
