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Media Landscape - Russia

1. WRITTEN PRESS

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During the Soviet era, Russia had a long and well established tradition of media use. Practically each Russian household during 1970 - 1990 subscribed several print outlets: one or two leading central newspapers (such as Pravda, Izvestiya, Trud, Sovetskaya Rossiya, etc.), at least one local/republican newspaper and several specific magazines (e.g. for the members of the Communist Party, farmers, workers, women, children, ecologists, professional journals, etc.). The subscription rate of those publications was unreasonably low while the circulation was quite high. This was due to the state system of media financing, in which the idea of media profitability did not play any significant role. The collapse of the Soviet Union has changed this system forever.

The period of Gorbachev perestroika was the most productive time for the Soviet media state control and censorship were waning while economic and financial pressure had not come over media outlets yet. Independence has brought a great deal of freedom of expression. At the same time, the system of state subsidies that existed under communism has vanished, leaving publications to struggle for their survival. Print media appeared to become the first victims of media commercialism.

Many papers and magazines, particularly those which appeared shortly before independence, died or were issued without any regularity. At that time in the early 1990s the majority of print outlets were owned by staffers and/or chief editors. Delayed paycheques and huge external debts became the new reality of the post-Soviet press. The situation started changing in the mid-1990s when a new class of Russian businessmen emerged and many new entertainment and fashion magazines of high printing quality began to appear. The presidential elections of 1996 turned the attention of the new Russian businessmen to the political role of the media. Although the major business fight was over television channels, the print media also became involved in the redrawing of the media ownership map. By the second half of the 1990s, the majority of the print media had new owners. Practically each new owner expected an outlet's loyalty and extensive personal coverage in exchange for financial support. The so-called 'Russian media wars' reached their peak by the year 1999. Biased reporting and negativism towards political opponents marked the new partisanship of the Russian press and were the outcome of economic dependency of the outlets on their new owners.

Nowadays, although the trend of media growth continues, it is not so booming and chaotic as in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. According to Ministry of Press data there are 37,425 print media outlets in Russia which are officially registered. There are 22,181 newspapers and 12,726 magazines among these outlets. However, many of these outlets have very low circulation. Increase in newspapers' prices has inevitably brought decline in their readership. Subscription rates have fallen for practically all outlets. As a rule, Russians buy one newspaper on a weekly basis. The major reason for this is the poor economic. In order to adjust themselves to the new consumption preferences of their readers many newspapers have moved from daily editions to weekly ones or have introduced a special weekly edition which has been practically unknown previously. Such weekly editions have big popularity among readers.

The leading Soviet times newspapers, such as Pravda, Izvestiya (circulation 263,650), Trud (circulation 1,700,000), Moskovskie Novosti, have preserved their positions in the new Russia. Argumenty I Facty (circulation 2,880,000), Komsomolskaya Pravda (circulation 27,000,000), Moskovsky Komsomolets popular during the perestroika era still remain among the most popular national print media. A number of newspapers appeared in the early 1990s - Nezavisimaya Gazeta (circulation 50,000), Kommersant (circulation 117,340) and Novaya Gazeta (circulation 670,000). The Moscow Times is the most popular English-language daily in Russia.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

Television remains the most popular medium in the country and popularity has increased since the 1990s. This is not only a result of bigger diversity and better quality of programmes. Nowadays, television watching is much cheaper than newspaper reading. There is no fee which viewers have to pay to receive the regular national channels. The only costs involved are the costs of energy. Moreover, Russia has inherited a highly developed network of television transmission from the Soviet era due to the fact that all national programmes at those times were broadcast from Moscow. Today, practically each Russian household owns at least one TV set and receives at least two national, one regional and one local TV channel.

The first national channel - Public Russian Television (ORT) - is the biggest TV channel in the country with total penetration of 98 per cent of the Russian territory or 140 million viewers. TV channel Russia is the second national channel with total penetration of 98.5 per cent of the territory and 50 million viewers. ORT is the largest national joint-stock TV company with 51 per cent of the shares controlled by the Russian state. The second national channel - Russia - is completely state-run. NTV is the only private Russian TV channel with the status of the national channel. It covers approximately 95 per cent of the country's territory and has an audience of 110 million viewers. It competes in popularity only with ORT. NTV received its status as a national channel in 1996 after Boris Yeltsin's re-election and was seen by many as a price the president paid the NTV owner Vladimir Gusinsky for his support during election campaign.

Since 2000, the NTV channel has been experiencing various economic and political difficulties beginning with the criminal case against Mr Gusinsky and his decision to flee the country. Among other major TV channels in Russia are TV-tsentr and TVC a channel, which is currently run by the former journalists of the NTV channel who left the NTV as a result of the recent transformation of the channel and of their disagreement with the methods and ideas of the new owners of the broadcaster. In general, there are 3,267 television channels registered by the Ministry of Press.

There are also 2,378 radio stations officially registered in the country. Music radio stations have great popularity in Russia. The leading Russian news&analysis radio stations include Radio Mayak, Radio of Russia and Echo of Moscow. There are also several popular foreign radio stations which were already broadcasting on the shortwaves band for a long time before the collapse of the USSR: Voice of America and Radio Liberty.


3. ONLINE MEDIA

The internet media have developed rapidly in recent years. Undoubtedly, Russia lags behind developed countries in certain internet parameters and primarily in accessibility of the internet to the Russian population. According to NUA statistics Russia had 18 million internet users (12.42 per cent of the population) in the year 2001. This indicator is smaller than the average for the EU countries. However, the number of Russian internet users has increased four times since 1999 when Russia had had only 5.4 million users (or 3.69 per cent of the population). A majority of the Russian internet users are young people between the age of 16 and 34, predominantly with university education. The majority of Russian users still have access to the internet from their places of work or study. In the geographical terms, the Russian internet audience is predominantly concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg (source: Regional Public Center of Internet Technologies).

Despite the difficulties in the internet technologies' development in Russia, evolution of online media is progressing rapidly. There are 868 online periodical outlets officially registered in the country. Russia is also one of few countries in the world where the new form of journalism - online journalism - and a new type of media - online-only news organisations - have received serious attention and development in the last 4-5 years. Online only papers are the periodical newspapers and magazines on the internet which do not have offline version. Appearance of such outlets and their fast evolution became possible due to high costs of print media production and distribution as well as the big numbers of young people with technical and journalistic education and very often without clear prospects of jobs. Polit.ru a news and politics internet portal, is one of the oldest Russian news sites on the internet (founded in 1996). By the year 1999, Russia already had several prominent online papers: the first internet daily Gazeta.ru the first round-the-clock news service Lenta.ru, Russky Zhurnal online papers Utro.ru, Vesti.Ru, (source: http://www.russ.ru).

More Russians got acquainted with the internet as a news and information medium in summer 2000 during the catastrophe aboard the Russian submarine Kursk and the fire in Ostankino TV tower which paralysed broadcasting of the leading national channels. The new wave of popularity online media obtained during the so-called NTV crisis in spring 2001 was connected with an expansion of Russian state control over private traditional media outlets. During that time, the online outlet NTV.RU (now NEWSRu, ) was practically the only arm of Mr Gusinsky's media group of which covered the entire conflict in a different way from the majority of Russian media.

Fund of effective politics, the leading Russian political and information consulting company, has been the owner of many leading online outlets. It has created one of the most powerful information resources on the Russian internet - Strana.ru, - a national information system which includes a main portal and regional websites in each of Russia's federal districts. All leading national TV channels are broadcast on this site in real-time. Strana.Ru has also developed several special projects. Although Strana.Ru is officially an independent internet site, it works very closely with the state media, - primarily with the state television- and very often is seen as an internet mouthpiece for the Russian authorities.


4. NEWS AGENCIES

There are around 30 large-scale information and news agencies in Russia. Some of them specialize exclusively in financial or economic news but a majority have broad coverage of ongoing issues. Practically each news agency has well-developed online services. These include:

  • Interfax news agency a part of the international news network Interfax Information Services;

  • ITAR-TASS the biggest state news agency, former major news agency of the Soviet Union;

  • RIA NOVOSTI state information and analytical agency of the Russian Federation, was created in 1991 on the basis of the Soviet Press Agency NOVOSTI;

  • RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) primarily internet-based financial and economic news agency founded in 1992. Currently it is one of the most popular news internet resources and the most popular news agency among Russian internet users;

  • Russian Bureau of News (RBN) online agency with daily news from different regions of Russia.

Also worth mentioning is the Russian Information Center a rather controversial structure created by the Ministry of Press and RIA NOVOSTI in 1999. The Russian Information Center's purpose is to disseminate an official view and news on the war in Chechnya. The agency is the main (and on many occasions the only) source of information on the military conflict in Chechnya for Russian and foreign journalists who cannot receive any news except through the Center.


5. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

The main organisations are:

  • Union of Russian Journalists A civic organisation based on membership of professionals working in the media and mass communication. The Union is called to protect and defend the interests of Russian journalists.

  • National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters Was created in 1995 on the initiative of Sagalaev and representatives of 41 television companies. It aims at defending the interests of television broadcasters in governmental bodies, finding common solution to corporate problems, ensuring equal possibilities and requirements for all broadcasters regardless of the geographical area of their activities and a form of ownership, providing access to professional information and contacts as well as providing legal and consulting support to companies on the issues of licensing, technology, taxation and professional training.

  • Internews Internews Russia is a Russian non-profit organisation (legal name: Autonomous Noncommercial Organization Internews or ANO Internews) working in collaboration with other Internews offices in the US, Western and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa to support independent media with the goal of enhancing worldwide tolerance and understanding. Internews programmes are based on the conviction that vigorous and diverse mass media form an essential cornerstone of an open society. Since 1992, Internews Russia has been providing support to independent Russian television broadcasters and the Russian television industry as a whole.

  • Foundation of Television, Radio, Electronic Media and internet Technologies' Development Was founded in 2001 by Sagalaev as a non-profit organisation with a broad spectrum of social, cultural, scientific and philanthropic goals.

  • Academy of the Russian Television A civic, non-profit organisation which unites interests of television broadcasters and television producers all over the country. It was founded as a Russian Fond of Television Development (RFRT) in 1994 on the initiative of the leading national TV companies such as ORT, VGTRK, TV-6, NTV and others.

  • WARP, Worldwide Association of Russian Press, An open international non-governmental organisation of print and electronic mass media, agencies, publishing houses, television and radio programmes as well as other legal producers and distributors of all type of mass information in Russian language.

  • Media Committee Its main goals are to implement the professional examination of TV audience, measuring and monitoring broadcast systems in Russia as well as the preparation and carrying out of the bid for audience measurement systems.


6. RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS

The Russian media landscape and information flow has undergone a series of transformations during last 2-3 years. If the second term of President Yeltsin in office was characterised by the intensity of the so-called 'media wars' between competing business-political groups, the first years of the Putin administration can be characterised by the new wave of media centralisation under clear guidelines and certain control of the Kremlin.

Two leading media magnates of the Yeltsin era - Mr Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky - not only lost control over the biggest parts of their media empires but also had to flee the country. The battle over the NTV channel marked the beginning of the media outlets' redistribution. That battle was won by Gazprom, the biggest creditor of Media-Most, the state-owned oil company and NTV's mother company. Both, Gazprom and Russian state officials did their best to present the conflict as an entirely financial one. However, independent and critical news coverage of events by the NTV team, which brought together the most prominent Russian TV journalists, gave enough reasons to suspect a political nature of the conflict. Suspicion grew when Gazprom changed the editors and leading journalistic teams in two other outlets of the Media-Most group - the daily Segodnya and a weekly magazine, Itogi. Another popular outlet, the independent radio station Echo of Moscow, has come through a series of financial and managerial troubles.

Although it survived in its previous form, its editor-in-chief and all leading journalists launched a new radio station, Arsenal. Online news site NTV has also come through certain difficulties. Finally, it had to change its name to NEWSRu. The most recent development connected with the NTV channel is a change of its director. The new NTV director has had little experience in media and journalism. He was a dentist before he started working for the press service of Gazprom.

After the NTV crisis, the core of the NTV journalistic team, headed by their director Yevgeny Kiselev moved to TV-6 channel. That channel was formerly owned by Mr Berezovsky like NTV, had got into a financial conflict with one of its shareholders, Lukoil, another big Russian oil company. As a result of this conflict the channel went off the air and a competition for air frequencies of TV-6 was issued by the Ministry of Press. The competition was won by Mr Kiselev's team and the former TV-6 channel had been transformed into TVC. Like the NTV crisis, this conflict was of a financial (and later legal) nature. However, as the CPJ, http://www.cpj.org/, notes; "The oil giant Lukoil has strong links with the Kremlin, and TV-6's fate was seen by many Russian politicians and journalists as part of a state-orchestrated campaign to control Russian citizens' access to information".

Lawsuits against journalists, as well as their prosecution, arrests and physical threats continue. The terrorist acts in the United States on September 11, 2001, and the hostage drama in a Moscow theatre a year later, reinforced the priority of state security and state secrets over media law and the right of journalists to receive and disseminate information. Several media outlets and individual journalists faced legal difficulties while covering the military conflict in Chechnya and the hostage drama in Moscow.

As the result of these and other changes in the media and information policy and practice in Russia, two leading international journalist organisations - the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders - have expressed their concerns about the degree of media freedom and state control in Russia. In 2001, the CPJ included president Putin in its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press. The same year, Reporters Without Borders named Mr Putin among the predators of press freedom.


7. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

Although the leading national channel of the Russian television has the name of 'public' television, this word should not lead to the conclusion that Russian media are accountable to the Russian public. During Soviet times the whole media system was directly accountable to the Communist Party. Recent developments in the Russian media policies aimed at re-centralisation of the media structure clearly indicate success of the Russian authorities to get Russian media again to answer to the government.

The state-owned nature of the leading TV channels undoubtedly signifies their accountability to their major shareholders - the Russian state. Further, the creation of the All-Russia State television and Radio Company (VGTRK), as an umbrella for regional state TV stations, as well as the Ministry of Press, Broadcasting and Means of Mass Communications is clearly meant to create a single information flow all over the country. The creation of the VGTRK symbolises the return of state control to the entire network of the country's television and radio channels. The Ministry of Press, Broadcasting and Means of Mass Communications is the supervisor of all media outlets in the country, both public and private. The Ministry, in turn, is directly appointed by and accountable to the president. Mikhail Lesin, long-time head of the Ministry, was famous for his statement that the Russian state should be protected from the media.

Licensing of the media activities is another form of media accountability before the ministry and the state. Due to the limited number of television and radio frequencies and great competition for them among media organisations, each media outlet is licensed to broadcast on a certain frequency for a specific period of time. When this period passes, a new competition can be opened. Media outlets can also be banned from broadcasting due to violations of laws or certain restrictions and measures.

Additionally an unofficial type of media accountability exists in Russia. Due to the weaknesses and certain unclarities of the media law as well as lack of a law on media ownership, media outlets very often find themselves accountable in different ways before their owners or creditors, who can decide to stop to finance a media outlet any time they believe it is necessary. Media organisations have also undergone series of tax audits, police confiscation and sanitary tests which are seen by many as a way of unofficial state control of the media and a reminder to media organisations about their obligations to the state.


8. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

Already in 1991 the Russian Federation adopted the Law on Media of Mass Information, which declared freedom of speech, information and expression as the fundamental rights for all media in order to perform their required role in society. The law contains provisions relating to the protection and independence of journalists and mentions the right of access to information.

Balance and objectivity are mentioned, but the revision of the law in 1995 has limited the freedom of the media as to their choice of reporting on the diverse views and opinions of political parties, particularly those not in power. Other laws regulating media activities in Russia include On Procedure of Media Coverage of State Authorities by State Media; On State Support of Mass Media and Publishing; On Economic Support of Regional Newspapers; On Licensing of Certain Activities. Discussions concerning laws on general and public broadcasting; media ownership, etc are ongoing. Moreover, many of the previously adopted laws and regulations have undergone serious revisions and corrections.

Based on the long tradition of European and American media legislation as well as recommendations of the Council of Europe, the European Union and different international organisations, media laws in Russia seem to absorb the best examples of world media legislation. Created in such way, media legislation would undoubtedly serve democratic ends in any country of Western Europe. Its effectiveness in the former USSR, however is limited by other conflicting laws.

One of the most important and intensively discussed legal collisions is a collision between the right of a journalist to seek and disseminate information and national laws on state secret and terrorism. This problem is most obvious in the media coverage of the military conflict in Chechnya. Several media outlets and individual journalists have been warned by the ministry during the last two years about the way they present this conflict. The ministry is particularly concerned with the legality of interviewing Chechen rebels and in an attempt to present a diversity of views on the conflict.

As a result, certain policies on airing the 'terrorist propaganda' have been adopted by the national parliament. Journalists working in Chechnya are not only requested to have a special accreditation issued by federal authorities but they also have to be accompanied by federal representatives. Moreover, on many occasions the Russian Information Center in Chechnya is the only source of information for journalists who are not allowed to receive information from other sources.

Last year Moscow theatre hostage drama has resulted in new restrictions on media coverage of the 'terrorist activities'. Practically a month after the end of the hostage drama, the Russian parliament adopted revisions of the laws on terrorism and mass media that forbid media outlets to spread information which may damage the conduct of contra-terrorist operations and bring threats to people's life and health.

At the last moment, president Vladimir Putin vetoed those revisions. However, several outlets during the hostage drama were warned or even temporarily closed by the Ministry for 'improper' coverage. Another example of 'legal problems' is the trial and imprisonment of the journalist Grigory Pasko. Reporters without Borders formulate his violations of the law in this way: 'Convicted of 'espionage' and 'high treason' Pasko conducted lengthy investigations and wrote hundreds of articles about the pollution resulting from the virtual abandonment of the Russian military's nuclear submarines with the complicity of the FSB (the former KGB). He also circulated video footage of liquid radioactive waste being dumped in the Sea of Japan by the Russian fleet'.


9. PRIME SOURCES FOR DETAILED INFORMATION


10. AUTHOR

Natalya Krasnoboka.


11. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Television

Radio

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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