The article in the New Yorker -- freedom of speech in Russia

[Sergey Glebov]

I think Alina is right in her assessment. It's a problem which is larger
than "freedom of speech" issue. It seems like the society is just exhausted
and tired of learning about things, people are simply not interested. Part
of it, I suppose, is the grand deal - you get the economy rolling, why care
about politics? 
What confuses people is that journalists often make it seem as if no freedom
of speech exists under Putin. It does, with limitations that seem to be in
line with what you would expect in a middle-income country and where
harassment and murder of journalists seem like a usual event (helas, also
widespread in middle-income countries). Michael Specter said on NPR today
that you can write whatever you like as long as it is published in a
newspaper nobody reads. But, we should agree, this is not the problem of
freedom of speech. It is the problem of rapid marginalization of liberal
intelligentsia and of its historical failure. After all, propping up Yeltsin
for the elections was hardly Putin's fault. It's easy to blame everything on
the government, and of course it has its share of responsibility, but unless
we know what shapes the current disinterest and apathy we can hardly
pronounce meaningful judgments. 


Sergey 

-----Original Message-----
From: Alina Israeli [mailto:aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU] 
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: The article in the New Yorker -- freedom of speech in Russia

Some commentary is necessary, I think:

On Feb 1, 2007, at 10:48 AM, Andrey Shcherbenok wrote:

>
> More than that, at any newsstand in a subway station in St.  
> Petersburg you
> can buy Kommersant, Novaya Gazeta, Argumenty i Fakty, Zavtra,  
> Izvestia, etc.
> The scope of opinions expressed in these sources is MUCH WIDER than  
> those
> you can obtain from a newsstand in New York subway.

That is indeed so, but the print media is dying in the US. While in  
the North America almost 70% of the population are Internet users  
(http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm), in Russia the number  
is at 14% (http://www.eatr.ru/media/media_20_07_2006_1.htm) so there  
is higher reliance on print media there.

So in all fairness one has to compare Russian newspapers with the US  
TV land and the Internet landscape.

As for the freedoms themselves, there are freedoms from and freedoms  
to. The 1st Amendment protects the freedom from government's  
involvement. If the government will prevent KKK from publishing their  
rubbish, I will donate money to the ACLU to sue the government and to  
reinstate their right under the First Amendment. But I will not  
support KKK's right to publish their hateful literature.

So in order to see the spectrum in the US, you have to search the  
Internet for a few minutes, really not that much, and you will find  
the far left and the far right, and everything in between.


>  Have you ever seen some easily available media
> source in the US describing the US military in Iraq as a gang of  
> bloody
> murderers? In Russia you can read such a description of Russian  
> military in
> Chechnya in a newspaper purchased for 10 rubles in your local  
> newsstand.

Same deal here: what's easily available is what would reflect a  
seizable majority who do not perceive US Army as a gang of bloody  
murderers. I am sure there are some people who do and you are sure to  
find this on the Internet.

But it is American press that by and large uncovers all scandals  
revolving around the US military (and there were a few over the  
years), and what's most important this information is taken seriously  
by those whose infractions are being uncovered. In Russia the press  
may write, no one cares. I think the establishment's attitude is best  
described Собака лает — ветер носит. How many times has it been  
written about dedovshchina? Now everyone knows the name of Sychev,  
but will the practice stop? Are there any guarantees?


Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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