[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E133-E134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RUSSIA'S UNFREE PRESS
______
HON. BARNEY FRANK
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 7, 2001
Mr. FRANK. Mr. Speaker, while there are many aspects of recent
developments in Russia which are encouraging, especially in the
economic area, there are also some very disturbing trends from the
standpoint of human rights and democracy. Recently, in the Boston
Globe, one of the leading American scholars focused on Russia, Marshall
Goldman, wrote about the disturbing aspects of President Putin's
apparent opposition to freedom of the press. As a professor of
economics at Wellesley College, who is also the Associate Director of
the Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University, Mr. Goldman is
one of the most acute observers of what is happening in Russia and I
think his very thoughtful analysis ought to be widely read by those of
us who have policy making responsibilities. I submit it for the Record.
Russia's Unfree Press
(By Marshall I. Goldman)
As the Bush administration debates its policy toward
Russia, freedom of the press should be one of its major
concerns. Under President Vladimir Putin the press is free
only as long as it does not criticize Putin or his policies.
When NTV, the television network of the media giant Media
Most, refused to pull its punches, Media Most's owner,
Vladimir Gusinsky, found himself in jail, and Gazprom, a
company dominated by the state, began to call in loans to
Media Most.
Unfortunately, Putin's actions are applauded by more than
70 percent of the Russian people. They crave a strong and
forceful leader; his KGB past and conditioned KGB responses
are just what they seem to want after what many regard as the
social, political, and economic chaos of the last decade.
But what to the Russians is law and order (the
``dictatorship of the law,'' as Putin has so accurately put
it) looks more and more like an old Soviet clampdown to many
Western observers.
There is no complaint about Putin's promises. He tells
everyone he wants freedom of the press. But in the context of
his KGB heritage, his notion of freedom of the press is
something very different. In an interview
[[Page E134]]
with the Toronto Globe and Mail, he said that that press
freedom excludes the ``hooliganism'' or ``uncivilized''
reporting he has to deal with in Moscow. By that he means
criticism, especially of his conduct of the war in Chechnya,
his belated response to the sinking of the Kursk, and the
heavy-handed way in which he has pushed aside candidates for
governor in regional elections if they are not to Putin's
liking.
He does not take well to criticism. When asked by the
relatives of those lost in the Kursk why he seemed so
unresponsive, Putin tried to shift the blame for the disaster
onto the media barons, or at least those who had criticized
him. They were the ones, he insisted, who had pressed for
reduced funding for the Navy while they were building villas
in Spain and France. As for their criticism of his behavior,
They lie! They lie! They lie!
Our Western press has provided good coverage of the dogged
way Putin and his aides have tried to muscle Gusinsky out of
the Media Most press conglomerate he created. But those on
the Putin enemies list now include even Boris Berezovsky,
originally one of Putin's most enthusiastic promoters who
after the sinking of the Kursk also became a critic and thus
an opponent.
Gusinsky would have a hard time winning a merit badge for
trustworthiness (Berezovsky shouldn't even apply), but in the
late Yeltsin and Putin years, Gusinsky has earned enormous
credit for his consistently objective news coverage,
including a spotlight on malfeasance at the very top. More
than that, he has supported his programmers when they have
subjected Yeltsin and now Putin to bitter satire on Kukly,
his Sunday evening prime-time puppet show.
What we hear less of, though, is what is happening to
individual reporters, especially those engaged in
investigative work. Almost monthly now there are cases of
violence and intimidation. Among those brutalized since Putin
assumed power are a reporter for Radio Liberty who dared to
write negative reports about the Russian Army's role in
Chechnia and four reporters for Novaya Gazeta. Two of them
were investigating misdeeds by the FSB (today's equivalent of
the KGB), including the possibility that it rather than
Chechins had blown up a series of apartment buildings.
Another was pursuing reports of money-laundering by Yeltsin
family members and senior staff in Switzerland. Although
these journalists were very much in the public eye, they were
all physically assaulted.
Those working for provincial papers labor under even more
pressure with less visibility. There are numerous instances
where regional bosses such as the governor of Vladivostok
operate as little dictators, and as a growing number of
journalists have discovered, challenges are met with threats,
physical intimidation, and, if need be, murder.
True, freedom of the press in Russia is still less than 15
years old, and not all the country's journalists or their
bosses have always used that freedom responsibly. During the
1996 election campaign, for example, the media owners,
including Gusinsky conspired to denigrate or ignore every
viable candidate other than Yeltsin. But attempts to muffle
if not silence criticism have multiplied since Putin and his
fellow KGB veterans have come to power. Criticism from any
source, be it an individual journalist or a corporate entity,
invites retaliation.
When Media Most persisted in its criticism, Putin sat by
approvingly as his subordinates sent in masked and armed tax
police and prosecutors. When that didn't work, they jailed
Gusinsky on charges that were later dropped, although they
are seeking to extradite and jail him again, along with his
treasurer, on a new set of charges. Yesterday the prosecutor
general summoned Tatyana Mitkova, the anchor of NTV's evening
news program, for questioning. Putin's aides are also doing
all they can to prevent Gusinsky from refinancing his debt-
ridden operation with Ted Turner or anyone else in or outside
of the country.
According to one report, Putin told one official, you deal
with the shares, debts, and management and I will deal with
the journalists. His goal simply is to end independent TV
coverage in Russia.
An uninhibited press in itself is no guarantee that a
society will remain a democracy, but when it becomes
inhibited, the chances that there will be such freedom all
but disappear.
When Western leaders meet Putin, they must insist that a
warm handshake and skill at karate are not enough for Russia
and Putin to qualify as a democratic member of the Big 8. To
do that, Russia must have freedom of the press--a freedom
determined by deeds, not mere declarations.
____________________