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

Fri Feb 2 00:12:55 UTC 2007

Everything Sergey says, including Specter's comment, echoes what journalists
currently working in Russia have recently told me. Apathy is the word. These
same journalists also tell me that the print media are in serious trouble in
Russia, too: there's no money in it. The source of news for the vast
majority of Russians is tv; it is everywhere, and the government literally
owns it. One might say that freedom of speech is "managed" in Russia, much
as democracy is "managed." 

David

David Powelstock 
Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures 
Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies 
Brandeis University 
GRALL, MS 024 
Waltham, MA  02454-9110 
781.736.3347 (Office) 

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu] On Behalf Of Sergey Glebov
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 5:41 PM
To: SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] The article in the New Yorker -- freedom of speech
in Russia

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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