DATE=6/16/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=IS KREMLIN MUZZLING RUSSIA'S PRESS?
NUMBER=6-11878
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: There is renewed worry in the United States
newspaper editorials that Russia's new president,
former K-G-B officer Vladimir Putin, has decided to
clamp down on his country's press.
A month ago, the government sent masked and heavily
armed police to seize corporate records at the offices
of one of the largest, independent newspaper and
broadcasting companies. The president of the same
company, Vladimir Gusinsky, was arrested on
embezzlement charges this week and held for three days
before being released. Officials said that despite
his release, Mr. Gusinsky, still faces embezzlement
charges.
Some government critics in Russia and most of the U-S
press feel the charges are false and that the real
reason for the arrest was to muzzle Russia's
independent press. We get a sampling of how the U-S
press views the latest developments we hear now from
___________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: The event that has so upset and offended so many
U-S newspapers was the arrest of 47-year-old Vladimir
Gusinsky, who owns Media-Most, which runs an
independent Moscow Radio station, a T-V station and
the newspaper Segodnya.
All have been highly critical of the Russian
government's conduct in the Chechen civil war.
Critics of the Putin administration, up to and
including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, fear
the arrest, and an earlier raid at Media-Most by
government agents, is retribution. The worry in the
United States is that the arrest and raid were also
designed to send a message to the rest of Russia's
emerging news media -- that no criticism of the
government will be tolerated.
We begin our sampling with excerpts of a column in
Friday's [6/16] Philadelphia Inquirer, by Trudy Rubin,
the newspaper's senior foreign affairs analyst. The
headline reads: "Putin muzzling media," and our
excerpt begins with an old U-S saying:
VOICE: In [President] Putin's case, it appears
you can take the man out of the K-G-B but you
can't take the K-G-B out of the man. That's the
only conclusion one can logically draw from
[Mr.] Putin's reaction to the arrest in Moscow
on Tuesday [6/13] of Vladimir Gusinsky, the
owner of Russia's lone independent television
station, N-T-V. The Russian leader told
journalists he knew nothing about the matter,
which conveniently occurred just after he had
left Russia. [Mr.] Putin also insisted that he
saw "no political aspect in this affair."
Nothing political? The jailing of [Mr.]
Gusinsky, whose (T-V) station has been critical
of Putin's Kremlin is a throwback to the bad old
Soviet days before glasnost. ... This sends a
clear message that anyone who dares criticize
the Kremlin should expect trouble. It also
sends some very disquieting signals about [Mr.]
Putin the man and whether he can provide the
leadership Russia so desperately needs.
TEXT: Florida's Miami Herald sums up its thoughts and
fears about the news with an editorial headline
reading: "Beware The Thought Police."
VOICE: Dictators know that to control people
they must first control the portals to their
minds, or more specifically, the media.
Accordingly, in Russia this week a leading media
critic of new President Vladimir Putin has been
jailed on dubious embezzlement charges. In
Cuba, where thought suppression has been honed
for four decades, Spanish-language publishing
firms are acquiescing to a steep entry fee for
access to Havana's bookshelves -- censorship by
the communist regime. Neither development is
acceptable. ... supporters from all sectors have
rallied to Mr. Gusinsky's defense, including
leading businessmen, Russian journalists, Putin
supporters, President Clinton and Jewish groups
who fear that Mr. Gusinsky may have been
targeted because he heads the Russian Jewish
Congress.
TEXT: The Tulsa [Oklahoma] World is another worried
U-S daily.
VOICE: Press freedom is a cornerstone of
democracy as practiced in the United States, the
world's model democracy. But while the news
media in Russia are no longer exclusively organs
of the state or ruling party, true press freedom
has not yet arrived. Earlier this week,
Vladimir Gusinsky, who owns a T-V station and
newspapers that criticize the Russian government
on the Chechen war, civil rights and corruption,
was arrested on charges of swindling and theft.
... [President] Putin ... denied the arrest was
motivated by revenge. ... stifling a critical
press ... just can't happen in free countries.
TEXT: The Chicago Tribune calls the event "An ominous
arrest" adding:
VOICE: [President] Putin has vowed to rebuild
the state and to root out corruption. But
jailing Vladimir Gusinsky ... is an unwise place
to begin. The as-yet-unfiled charges may well
be legitimate. That's not the issue here. The
highly irregular circumstances of the arrest of
such an outspoken critic of the government stink
of soviet-era repression. This is not how
democracy works and [President] Putin knows it.
The uproar over [Mr.] Gusinsky's arrest is
overshadowing the president's first official
trip to Europe ...
TEXT: In New England, The Boston Globe says of the
arrest:
VOICE: ...[it] looks like a crude effort to
punish or intimidate critics of President ...
Putin's government. ... [it belies] his
carefully crafted image as president of a new
Russia founded upon equal justice for all.
TEXT: As far as this country's preeminent financial
daily, The Wall Street Journal, is concerned:
VOICE: The arrest Tuesday of mogul Vladimir
Gusinsky is either the first salvo in a Kremlin
war against rent-seeking oligarchs or a return
to the Soviet-era practice of taking political
prisoners. It was either carried out with the
knowledge of the Russian president, or (as he
says) it was done behind his back while he is on
a foreign trip. However you serve it, it
doesn't look good.
TEXT: In an editorial that closely resembles the
Journal's thoughts, The Los Angeles Times searches for
some good that may come out of this incident.
VOICE: If there is a silver lining to [Mr.]
Gusinsky's unexpected arrest, it is the massive
protest it triggered in Moscow, not only among
journalists but politicians and the business
community as well. ... [President] Putin ...
must realize that the threat to democracy in
Russia comes not from a critical press but from
those within his own government who try to
muzzle it.
/// OPT ///
TEXT: Finally, these thoughts from Boston's Christian
Science Monitor.
VOICE: Single acts in the name of justice can
offer insights about a nation. Bill Clinton's
impeachment, for instance, says something about
honesty in America. Britain's detention of
Augusto Pinochet, the ex-dictator of Chile,
speaks of concern for human rights. Indonesia's
arrest of former strongman Suharto reveals a
respect for the rule of law. This week, an
arrest in Russia ... [serves] as [a window] on
the primary concerns of leaders [there]. ...
Vladimir Gusinsky's many media outlets have been
critical in their commentary about Kremlin
actions, such as war in Chechnya. ... If
[President] Putin did not have a hand in the
arrest, then his ability to rule is in doubt.
If he did, Russia's claim to be part of
civilized Europe is also in doubt.
TEXT: With those thoughts, we conclude this sampling
of U-S editorial comment on the arrest this week of a
major media industry executive in Russia.
NEB/ANG/JP
16-Jun-2000 14:48 PM EDT (16-Jun-2000 1848 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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