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From: "James Schumaker" <shoeone@comcast.net>
Subject: Response to Dunkerley Comments on Media Freedom in Russia/ 9223
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005

During his critique of Anders Asland’s essay, William Dunkerley notes that “Putin's actions against oligarchic media bosses clearly have reduced the pluralism in the media. That's unfortunate. But, it’s hardly a diminution of press freedom. After all, none had existed.” Speaking as someone who has lived in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine over the past several years, and watched my share of Russian programs and read my share of Russian newspapers, I find this conclusion rather astonishing, to say the least. It is certainly true that the Russian media were less free under Yeltsin than comparable media in the UK and the United States during the same period. But they were also under far fewer real controls and were far less disciplined in their fealty to the oligarchs than Mr. Dunkerley’s statement would imply. Of course, oligarchs could tell their newspapers to print a story with a certain slant to it, and often did (something, which, I am sure, never ever happens in the West). Of course, people paid to place articles in the newspaper, or stories on TV news programs. And of course, the overall standards of journalism were rather low in Yeltsin’s Russia. But at the same time, there was a tremendous flowering of debate in the print and electronic media on the political and social issues of the day, and ample room for creditable journalists and political satirists to do their work. This was particularly true of television: how else can one explain the wickedly funny satirical program “Kukly,” launched in 1994 and produced by Viktor Shenderovich, which skewered everyone on the political stage with equal opportunity gusto, or the no-holds barred commentary of Yevgeniy Kiselev, or later news shows like “Namedni,” produced Leonid Parfenov or “Svoboda Slova,” produced by Savik Shuster. Now, all these commentators, along with so many others, are effectively off the air, and some, like Shuster, are moving south to Kiev. The fact is that a lot has been lost in President Putin’s reorganization of the media, including a much of the liveliness and freedom that Mr. Dunkerley claims did not exist under Yeltsin. If anyone wants to know the true picture of how media freedom in Russian has changed over the past few years, I would suggest that they read “Kremlin Rising,” by Washington Post correspondents Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, particularly chapters 4 (“The Takeover Will Be Televised”) and 15 (“Agitation”). Unlike Mr. Dunkerley, they have got it right.