DATE=6/4/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA/SUMMIT MEDIA
NUMBER=5-46442
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton and Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright have visited radio stations
in Moscow to show their support for Russia's
independent media, following a series of crackdowns.
But as Moscow Correspondent Eve Conant reports, many
local journalists fear Russians care less about the
free press than Mr. Clinton does.
TEXT: A Senior U-S official says President Clinton's
radio appearance on a Russian call-in program is aimed
at supporting Russia's independent media. Recent
events have caused concern over newly elected
President Vladimir Putin's commitment to a free press.
Fears were first aroused earlier this year with the
arrest and detention of Andrei Babitsky, a Radio
Liberty reporter who angered authorities with his
reports from behind rebel lines in Chechnya. After
meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
Mr. Babitsky told V-O-A she expressed a "restrained"
optimism about the state of Russia's media that he and
his colleagues do not share.
/// ACT BABITSKY IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER ///
He says - we talked about the catastrophic situation
in Chechnya and how Russian journalists cannot write
about the mass human-rights violations occurring
there.
Further concern over Russia's media was sparked in
early May when a team of gun-toting police wearing ski
masks raided the offices of the Media Most holding
company. Media Most runs Russia's only independent
national television station, N-T-V, as well as Ekho
Moscow radio where President Clinton spoke.
Russian officials said the raid was to investigate
illegal wiretapping. But Masha Lipman, deputy editor
of Media Most's "Itogi" magazine, says Russian
journalists know the raid was carried out as a
warning.
/// ACT LIPMAN ///
This is no secret, no one is to be fooled. This
raid is an act of intimidation and this shows
the bad instincts of this new government - their
reaction to an opposition press as the enemy, as
a force that gets in the way of their operation.
Their reaction to this getting in the way is
"let us neutralize it," not "let us cooperate
with it, let us try to make ourselves look
better." Instead they are trying to suppress,
if indirectly, to neutralize, if indirectly.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// Days after the Media Most raid a
correspondent for the investigative Novaya Gazeta
newspaper was beaten unconscious after assailants
attacked him at his apartment entranceway. The motive
for the attack remains a mystery, but its timing and
its overall effect was another message to journalists
that their jobs are hardly risk-free. ///END OPT///
Novaya Gazeta's Deputy Editor Sergey Sokolov says
freedom of press in Russia is already a misnomer, with
a few rich businessmen, referred to in Russia as the
`oligarchs' at the helm of each of the country's main
news outlets. He says Russians do not trust what they
read or hear, anyway.
///// SOKOLOV ACT IN RUSSIAN WITH MOSCOW VOICE OVER IN
ENGLISH /////
He says - readers are not interested, they do
not even care. He says - Russians are fed up
with the idea of a `free media' - the idea lost
its value after so many T-V news programs did
their best to discredit investigative journalism
by treating T-V not as something serious, but
more like a horror movie."
/// END ACT ///
Itogi Editor Masha Lipman says she is also frustrated
by the seeming indifference of Russians. She is
worried Russian journalists might be alone in their
fight for the free word.
/// ACT LIPMAN ///
I think there is a division between journalists
and the public. I think too much is taken for
granted by the public and the reason for it is
that the Russian people never actually fought
for it.
// OPT // Democracy, when it came to Russia did
not fall owing to a popular movement, like
happened in some countries of Eastern Europe.
It was Gorbachev that started Perestroika, not
the Russian people. People are not keeping a
close watch on whether or not there is a
crackdown on our freedoms. And they are even
less ready to fight for it. I think this is a
very important factor and a sad factor to me and
this is a sad message to Russian journalists.
// END OPT //
/// END ACT ///
General Secretary of Russia's Union of Journalists,
Igor Yakovenko says one mistake Russian journalists
made was to assume the fight for freedom was already
won during democratic advances of the 1990's.
/// ACT YAKOVENKO IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE. ///
He says - press freedom is not something that is given
once and forever. He points out it has been 10-years
since the law on mass media was passed. Back then,
says Igor Yakovenko, Russian journalists thought
freedom would be automatic, but he says reporters have
lost that feeling and today realize they must never
stop fighting.
Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky worries that
average Russians will only fight for an independent
media once they have lost it.
/// SECOND BABITSKY ACT / RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE ///
He says - I have a pretty dark view of the perspective
for the free media in our country, but perhaps when
society finally loses it for good, people will realize
how indispensable it was. (SIGNED)
NEB/EC/DW/RAE
04-Jun-2000 12:38 PM EDT (04-Jun-2000 1638 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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