Being a journalism student with a whole lot of curious journalism students around me, I often hear questions about the freedom of speech in Russia. Just a few minutes ago I submitted an essay to a study/internship program about the issue. And I thought this blog would be a nice new home for the piece.
The sound of my heels echoes in a long corridor lined with doors. Behind those doors the magic happens, the every day magic of television production. It’s a local TV station in my home country, Russia, with 50 some employees and a label of “one of the first independent channels in the region.” I came here as a 14-year-old intern and left as a 17-year-old full-timer. Now, two more years later, I am back to visit.
After the “It’s so great to see you!” hoo-ha, I ask the inevitable:
How’s news reporting going?
The managing news editor sighs, shakes her head and frowns.
It’s gotten worse, I find out. The new regional officials issued a list of topics reporters can either cover in a positive light or not at all. Sometimes the administration calls to check what stories are planned, sometimes requests to approve scripts, and sometimes sends in its own.
It’s not that Russia doesn’t have freedom of speech. It’s just that “free media” seems to be a loose concept here.
Four Russian networks top the list of the most popular channels in the country: Channel One, Russia TV, NTV and STS. Channel One is the wealthiest, largest and widest in reception area; the government is the company’s major shareholder. Russia TV is an official governmentally owned channel, prefixed with ВГТРК, meaning All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. STS advertises itself as the first entertainment network and doesn’t report news. NTV started as a prominent independent television channel but in 2002 underwent a complete change of staff and ownership – from a private holding to the infamous government’s Gazprom.
Being an opposition medium is a doable but dire task, it seems. Overwhelmingly patriotic and subliminally anti-European or anti-American framing of news sneaks even into media sources traditionally considered oppositional (mostly, print, on-line or radio).
People who grow up watching, reading and hearing news like this may never realize they are deprived of a diversity of views. With government’s oversight and smart news-making techniques, generation after generation of Russians gives in to the media’s influence only to have the “preferred,” the “proper” stances ingrained in their minds.
Something has to be off, it seems, when a student of the most prominent journalism school in Russia, Moscow State University’s, blogs about how she despises BBC, CNN and a number of other foreign media for their “complete biasness and anti-Russia-nism.”
Potential solutions to the problem that by-pass Russian government are several.
One is creating more foreign exchange programs for journalism students, professionals or teachers. Visiting foreign journalism schools, interning or observing how news coverage is handled in another country could help expose Russian journalists – past, current or future – to diverse reporting approaches and opinions.
Making “outsider” media accessible to Russian citizens is another option, and the Internet can accomplish that. Watching other countries’ news reports about Russia and the rest of the world could be a good reality check for Russian citizens, a way to break their bubbles. An obstacle, though, is a very small number of foreign outlets offering news coverage in Russian. Those few that do exist, including BBC, aren’t widely known and need better advertising.
After all, the first step toward solving a problem is recognizing it, not just behind closed doors but en masse.
