was: freedom of the press

[Mary Elizabeth McLendon]

>One gets quite tired listening to all these Russia admirers for whom Russia
is much more of an enigma than for any decent Russia hater.

Aren't most of us on this list on it because we have some sort of love or
admiration for Russia? (not to exclude all of the other Slavic and EE
languages, but most of the discussions seem to be about Russia)

Whether we like it or not, each of us sees Russia from our own point of
view, through our own biases, with our own set of generalizations. There are
many ideas about solutions for Russia's current problems. More than one of
them may be right, or they may all be impossible. (but the discussion so far
has been very interesting!)

I think that the original point of this topic, that freedom of the press is
being not-so-slowly eroded in Russia, is an extremely important issue.
However, as the saying goes, you can't put toothpaste back in the tube.
People in Russia now know what it's like to have a more or less free press
(keep in mind that most newspapers and TV stations in the US are owned by
major corporations which have their own agendas) but the USSR was in
existence recently enough for them to remember what things were like without
the press being free. No one I've ever met wants to go back to that no
matter how they may long for other aspects of life under communism. With
today's technology it would be well nigh impossible to control information
as the USSR did, unless the populace was completely willing (we'll have to
wait and see about that).

I have no doubt at all that the Russians will weather this period in
history, and probably have some beautiful art, literature and music to show
for it. The question is not what we can do to help (we've probably done
enough already) but how we can best support the Russian people (and I do
mean people, not the government) in whatever direction they decide to go.

Lisa McLendon

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