DATE=10/28/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHECHNYA INFORMATION WAR
NUMBER=5-44642
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: While the West hears increasingly grim reports
about Russia's attacks against civilians in Chechnya,
Russians are hearing an entirely different story.
Three years ago, Russia's independent media carried
graphic accounts of the war. The coverage was a key
factor in turning public opinion against the failed
campaign. But this time, as V-O-A Moscow
Correspondent Peter Heinlein reports, even nominally
independent media outlets have joined the government
propaganda bandwagon.
TEXT:
/// SOUND OF WOMAN SOBBING - FADE UNDER
///
Western journalists visiting the Chechen village of
Elistanzhi this month found residents grieving for
their dead. They told of Russian jets swooping down
on them unexpectedly, riddling a square block area
with bombs and bullets.
/// CHUMAKOVA ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE
UNDER ///
"We are not fighting," this woman told reporters,
"just sowing potatoes and bringing in crops. Then
bombs fell on us like apples".
Scenes similar to this one horrified Russian and world
audiences in the previous Chechen war from 1994 to
1996. But this time, Russians are learning almost
nothing of what happens inside Chechnya. Instead,
they are hearing a carefully orchestrated government
version of events.
When rockets fell on Grozny's central market, killing
more than 100 people, Western agencies quickly
obtained video of the carnage and confirmed it was a
Russian missile attack. But this time, the pictures
of bodies and shattered glass appeared only briefly on
Russian television screens.
Instead, viewers saw Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
giving an entirely different explanation.
/// PUTIN ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE TO UNDER
///
Prime Minister Putin says the target was a weapons
market, a headquarters for bandits. The prime
minister told journalists it was possible the
explosions were the result of a clash between rival
Chechen criminal gangs.
Russian human rights activist Andrei Mironov, who
visited Chechnya this month and saw the effect of the
bombings, called the official version of events
"astonishing".
/// MIRONOV ACT ONE ///
I was in Elistanzhi, destroyed by a carpet
bombardment, and something like now it's 48
victims registered, half of them children. And
Russian media officially reported no Russian
aviation did not fly that day at all. It was
quotation from Prime Minister Putin again.
Nothing but this quotation was ever reported on
this. People get only lies. Nothing else, and
it is extremely efficient.
/// END ACT ///
Journalists say the Russian government has claimed for
itself a near monopoly on information about the war.
One of the first targets of Russian warplanes were
Chechnya's telephone system and television
broadcasting center.
And journalists, who roamed the region at the height
of the last war, are staying away this time. One
reason is the wave of kidnappings and killings that
followed the Russian troop withdrawal in 1996.
/// OPT /// Among those kidnapped and held for
months was Yelena Masyuk, an award-winning reporter
for Russia's independently-owned N-T-V channel.
/// OPT /// N-T-V led Russian media in its critical
reporting from the war zone last time. N-T-V's
coverage was considered a key factor in turning public
opinion against the war.
/// OPT /// But this time, N-T-V has been just as
supportive of the government war effort as the state-
run media, travelling with Russian troops and
broadcasting only carefully crafted reports of devoted
troops helping civilians and fighting bandits.
/// OPT /// Reporter Yelena Masyuk told an N-T-V
audience this week she considers that going back to
cover the Chechen side of the war would be a foolish
risk.
/// OPT // MASYUK ACT - IN RUSSIAN -
FADE UNDER ///
/// OPT /// She says, "What happened, happened.
But to talk about going to the Chechen side and be
protected. No. Impossible. /// END OPT ///
The dean of the journalism faculty at Moscow State
University, Yassen Zassoursky, says that as a result,
Russian audiences are getting a one-sided view of the
war.
/// ZASSOURSKY ACT ONE ///
We see Russian troops attacking targets in
Chechnya, but we don't see on our screens or in
our papers stories about what is really
happening inside Chechnya. And that is contrary
to the principles of objective coverage of the
war.
/// END ACT ///
Professor Zassoursky says the lack of balanced
reporting could backfire.
/// ZASSOURSKY ACT TWO ///
It's dangerous because the public does not
know what it needs to know about the war,
because if you don't know this, you may be
trapped into a dangerous or murderous situation.
/// END ACT ///
A sampling of public opinion on the streets of Moscow
confirms surveys that show solid public support for
the current conflict, and widespread animosity toward
Chechens, who are blamed for last month's apartment
building bombings that killed nearly 300 people.
/// DAVYDOVA ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
///
Seventy-three-year-old Nina Davydova says "Television
does show the truth. They cannot go there since the
Chechens take hostages, torture people, kidnap
children."
Human rights activist Andrei Mironov says the public
attitude toward Chechens after the bomb blasts and the
negative media coverage is frightening.
/// MIRONOV ACT TWO ///
We are living through a period similar to the
Weimar period in Germany in the 1930's.
Chechens are being persecuted like Jews in
Germany in the early 1930's. They cannot go
on the street freely. Just because of their
different ethnicity. Not just Chechens, but all
Caucasians. And it is more or less accepted by
public opinion. It's even approved.
/// END ACT ///
Concern about the rise of anti-Chechen sentiments has
been widely reported in the West, as have criticisms
by several foreign governments of what is described as
the "indiscriminate use of force" by Russian troops in
Chechnya.
But at home, the positive news coverage is translating
into strong public support for the war effort, and for
its chief architect, Prime Minister Putin. Even
politicians and others who spoke out against the
previous campaign are solidly supporting this one.
It appears that despite a long tradition of healthy
distrust for official versions during the Soviet
period, many Russians are now willing to believe what
their media are telling them.(Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/JP
28-Oct-1999 14:35 PM EDT (28-Oct-1999 1835 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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