Nordic Freelance JournalistsBEYOND THE BORDERS

Majvik 15.06.2013DRAFT

Are dark days returning to Russia?

14.06.13

You should newer criticize any country from abroadRussian definitions of such terms as law, success, and

fairness are different from the Western ones. But it is still a normal country, which is very different

from Scandinavian countries, but even so it´s way of living is much more like an Italian one.

If you criticize someone in the (government), you never know how upset they might be.

Vladimir Milov: “The deficit of political representation is a serious problem: if the protest movement in 2011-2012 had managed to turn into a powerful organized political force aiming to take power at the next election, it would have been more difficult to send investigators here and there. But, alas, it did not happen.”

“So is moving abroad the only solution?”

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Sergei Guriev @sguriev nes.ru/~sgurieva Morgan Stanley Professor of Economics and a Rector at the New Economic School (NES) in Moscow until he resigned 30 April 2013 and fled to France

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4tiUe6gZZPuSDVDQXlreGhzVlk/edit?pli=1

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Why the hysteria about Russia? And let me pick out three examples more: the Agent-

Law, demonizing Russia and mislead European audience. “Demonizing Russia doesn’t change the conditions there

and only undermines our ability to see what we want and need”, says republican well known commentator Paul J. Saunders.

“True Russia is not the media reality”, says Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Russian Federal Agency for Relations with the CIS states.

Agent-Act has victims that we never could imagine: Levada center has never flattered the opposition or the government. It is an organization which has a reputation of a truly independent analytical center. “Independency and dedication to liberal values caused in the end the impact: government demands that it should be flattered”, says sociologists Aleksei Kakarkin.

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Russia is…

Primitive authoritariarism, as Russia was defined by Grigori Javlinski on April 29th 2013 in Hanasaari, Espoo.

The report, which came out in spring, put Russia in the “non-free” group of countries, criticizing it for governmental control of main television channels and recent draconian regulations on NGOs and slander in the media.

http://russialist.org/russia-founders-in-3-media-freedom-ratings/

Journalists Must Maintain an Independence From Those They Cover

But a journalist must be smart enough and honest enough to recognize that opinion must be based on something more substantial than personal beliefs if it is to be of journalistic use.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102544/Journalists-Must-Maintain-an-Independence-From-Those-They-Cover.aspx

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Russians are scary (Dan Soder-Stand Up-01.07.13)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRIsC764Nn4&feature

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All you need is to look at the paid murders or their attempts: The most dangerous job of all is that of a political

observer. Paul Hlebnikov, Mihail Beketov, Oleg Kashin, Anna

Politkovskaja and many others. Even after journalists are dead, the attacks on them

continue. Shortly after Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in the elevator of her apartment building, Vladimir Putin, then president of Russia, called her an “insignificant” reporter.

In reality, she was a courageous investigative reporter within Russia and a journalist whose stories from Chechnya gained international recognition.

Soon after the abduction and murder of award-winning journalist Natalia Estemirova, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said she was “a woman with no morality.”

(By Svyatoslav Belyansky)

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There is no government censorship……but you never know. Lacking rule of law. (of

awareness) (A)

Government is not districting you. It is moving away. “What ever!” You have relatively freedom. (A)

Human rights issues don’t have resonance in the society. “Yeh, but what did you expect?” It is not problem of the government; it is problem of the society we are living. (A)

And because journalists are not prosecuted they are seen as political. Message is that it is not right to criticize. Who knows, what might happen. It effects how do you live in Russia.

(by Anna Arutunjan)14.06.13

The journalists’ role in Russia is not homogenousThere are different roles in the country. The education of

journalists has increased. In traditional journalist schools self comprehension is present. New schools concentrate on technical skills.

In Moscow there are tv journalists whose self comprehension is not so strong. They want journalists who do not question too much. (just as in entertainment journals in general).

There is no unified journalist culture in Russia. Entertainment material is the same as anywhere. It is easier for the politicians to define how they are presented.

(by Jukka Pietiläinen)14.06.13

Reporters Without Borders (Helsinki 6.6.2013)

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Foreigners are extremely privileged

The Russian media spectrum is very large.

Kremlin is helping to make negative image about Russia. It is easy to do unbalanced stories.

Russia is a mixture, not 100% authoritarian. You can find information, but it is extremely difficult to verify.

It is very difficult to get interviews from information source, if you are not from BBC or in the press conference.

(“I wanted to write about the middle class, how people are working hard. But Russia is so large with so many problems.”)

(by Anna-Lena Laurén)14.06.13

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Useful to know

That, some materials may be taken away from process or changed the way that they satisfy the part who pressures.

That, telephones of political observers may be listened unofficially (without the court’s decision).

That, officials may pay attention not only to printed media, but also the content of blogs and other channels of social media.

That, there is no other way of getting out of than free and fair elections.

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Nobody defends the rights of journalists…

…if a powerful figure wants to limit them. Not necessarily Kreml. Someone may just be irritated because the journalist picks up an issue.

In Russia it is more usual to produce material to Internet rather than preventing to publish something.

Local authorities have tried to limit YouTube but failed.

The use of Internet is controlled by a committee which decides what can be banned. This is not directly connected with the freedom of speech (as in Turkey).

http://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/05/bortnikov/

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Mihail Berg wrote in facebook: “Those who affirm that Hitler was a lot bigger crook than

Stalin, and that it was possible to fight for Stalin without conscience killing, even on the plains of Poland, Baltic countries, Western Ukraine and Belorussia, understand with consideration towards for Putin. There is nothing unusual about this: both Stalin and Putin support the idea of Russia as a superpower. Those who think that Stalin was equally bad as Hitler, if not worse, hate Stalinism, USSR as a prison of peoples, totalitarism as a system, and do not love Putin very much.”

In a mathematical sense this comparison reminds a politically not so very correct anecdote of the Soviet times: an uninvited guest is even worse than a Tatar. And a sort of pro-Tatar version: an uninvited guest is better than a Tatar. But as a result Putin wins anyway. Because if Stalin – Hitler = Putin, then also Hitler – Stalin = Putin. This means that it does not matter whom are we talking about nowadays, Putin is always on our mind.

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Juliana Skoybeda on the SMERSH, lampshades…Ульяна Скойбеда о СМЕРШЕ, абажурах и Гозмане

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsc9b9Z10oc

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Marginality became a general line«Маргинальность стала генеральной линией»

http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/05/17/komsomolka/

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Aleksei Navalnyi

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Anyone can be a journalist! Not everyone is…

How many freelance or other colleagues in Nordic countries actually follow Russia and make reports about it?

What is the level of potential readers, listeners and viewers?

What do people know about the common and separate history of Finland and Russia?

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@jarmokoponen

Thank you!

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