Transcript Russian Media - St. John's High School

Russian Media
Winning hearts through "unbiased coverage of events in Russia"
- Vladimir Putin
Soviet Era
● Media state-controlled
o
Glavlit (censorship body)
● Large importance placed on information
o
means to inform, influence
● domestic propaganda
● foreign Dezinformatsiya
o
CIA created AIDS, JFK conspiracies (Paese Sera)
post-Soviet Union
● Constitutional protections for media
o
Sec. 1, Ch. 2, Article 29
1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought and speech.
2. Propaganda or campaigning inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred and strife is
impermissible. The propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or language superiority is
forbidden.
3. No one may be coerced into expressing one's views and convictions or into renouncing them.
4. Everyone shall have the right to seek, get, transfer, produce and disseminate information by any
lawful means. The list of information constituting the state secret shall be established by the
federal law.
5. The freedom of the mass media shall be guaranteed. Censorship shall be prohibited.
Domestic Media Takeover
● Kursk fiasco
o “Putin learned a key lesson. Television - the very same television that
had created him, a president plucked out of thin air - could turn on him
and destroy him just as fast with the same evident ease” (173)
● State takeover
o Media-Most (NTV), Channel One
● Threats, murders, arrests
o Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Safronov, 5 Novaya Gazeta employees
Domestic takeover (cont.)
● “Extremism” laws
● Foreign ownership law
o
o
limits foreign ownership of media assets to 20 percent by the beginning of 2017
Vedomosti, Forbes Russia
“We understand very well that those who own information own the world,” lawmaker Vadim
Dengin, the author of the bill, said during a parliamentary debate before the law was approved.
“When foreigners come here to make money and then actively influence the media market and
use it for their own benefit, at this moment, I want to say that I am ready to close down Russia
and ensure its security.”
Ukraine “interview”
Foreign Confusion
● Modern Dezinformatsiya
● RT (Russia Today)
o international news station
 600 million people globally, 3 million hotel rooms
 English, Arabic, Spanish, plans to launch in German, French
o headed by Dmitry Kiselyov
o since 2013 took control of RIA Novosti (International news station),
Voice of Russia radio station
 Russian Union of Journalists eviction
o 1.3 billion youtube views
o annual budget of $300 million, increased by 41% in fall 2014
Foreign Confusion (cont.)
●
Ketchum (Western PR firm)
o places pro-Russian op-eds in news agencies
 Vladimir Putin’s New York Times op-ed
●
Sergey Markov given space on BBC Radio 4 for “balance”
o claimed that Syrian “rebels would use chemical weapons to create the
context for international action.”
●
Russia Beyond the Headlines
o Russian government–sponsored insert featured in major newspapers and
websites
 23 countries and in 16 languages
 UK Telegraph, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal
“When a journalist disagrees with the editorial position of his or her organization, the usual course of
action is to address those grievances with the editor, and, if they cannot be resolved, to quit like a
professional. But when someone makes a big public show of a personal decision, it is nothing more
than a self-promotional stunt.”
A Modern Approach
“At home, the Kremlin's censorship and mass
media control prevent alternative ideas from
entering mainstream discussion and enable the
government to dominate crucial narratives.
Outside Russia, where Kremlin censorship
cannot eliminate alternative views, the aim of
Russia's media is different. In settings with
media pluralism, Russia's goal is not to
persuade audiences of the virtues of Kremlin
policy but to create confusion and raise doubts
about the facts of a given issue.”
Russia's International Media Poisons Minds by
Robert Orttung and Christopher Walker, The Moscow Times
Social Media
● Recognized to be important
new venue for information
○ positive and negative
■ Aleksei Navalny
● Russian “Trolls”
○ falsified documents,
pictures, etc.
“On an average working day, the Russians
are to post on news articles 50 times. Each
blogger is to maintain six Facebook accounts
publishing at least three posts a day and
discussing the news in groups at least twice
a day. By the end of the first month, they are
expected to have won 500 subscribers and
get at least five posts on each item a day. On
Twitter, the bloggers are expected to manage
10 accounts with up to 2,000 followers and
tweet 50 times a day.”
By the numbers
● Reporters without Borders
o
2013: 148th out of 179
● Freedom House
o
2013: 176th out of 197
● Committee to Protect Journalists
o 9th for number of journalists killed with complete impunity