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PUTIN, THE MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
INTRODUCTION
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN, IN HIS FIRST STATE OF THE NATION
ADDRESS THIS PAST WEEK, ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HIS DRIVE TO STRENGTHEN KREMLIN
RULE IS PROMPTING CONCERN ABOUT A RETURN TO “DICTATORSHIP AND AUTHORITARIANISM”
IN RUSSIA. BUT HE TOLD PARLIAMENT HE IS DOING THIS TO PROTECT “CIVIC, POLITICAL,
AND ECONOMIC FREEDOMS.”
YET, SOME HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES AND PUTIN CRITICS STILL FEAR THAT MR. PUTIN’S TACTICS COULD SLOW ANY PROGRESS TOWARD DEMOCRATIC REFORM, AND COULD RESTORE THE AUTHORITARIANISM SO DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN RUSSIA’S HISTORY.
DAVID BORGIDA TAKES A LOOK AT MR. PUTIN’S INCREASINGLY TENSE RELATIONSHIP
WITH THE MEDIA -- AND WHAT IT COULD SIGNAL FOR RUSSIA’S NASCENT DEMOCRACY.
NATURAL SOUND - GUSINSKY TALKING
NARRATION
LAST MONTH’S ARREST AND DETENTION OF VLADIMIR GUSINSKY -- THE OWNER
OF RUSSIA’S ONLY NATIONAL INDEPENDENT TELEVISION NETWORK -- STIRRED FEARS
OF A SYSTEMATIC GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN ON JOURNALISTIC FREEDOM- - AND A RETURN
TO THE DARK PRACTICES OF THE PAST.
VOA MOSCOW CORRESPONDENT PETER HEINLEIN IS ON THE FRONT-LINES.
PETER HEINLEIN
“Many journalists I know are saying ‘I feel the atmosphere is different
than it was before.’ So certainly there has been a tremendous, a sea change,
in the government’s attitude toward the media and the media’s concern about
what could happen to it.”
NARRATION
BUT TO THE AVERAGE RUSSIAN—THIS IS NO BIG DEAL… THAT, ACCORDING TO
TOP RUSSIA POLITICAL ANALYST MIKE MCFAUL OF WASHINGTON’S CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT
FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE.
MIKE MCFAUL
“There’s a real disconnect now between the Russian intelligentsia in
the big cities and the Russian electorate as a whole. Right now, liberals,
journalists, political party members, are very concerned that Mr. Putin
might be cracking down on democracy. And so they fear him right now-- whereas
the electorate as a whole—because they like what he’s doing in Chechnya,
they like what he’s doing with the economy—support him. “
NARRATION
MIKE MCFAUL SAYS, AFTER CAREFULLY ASSESSING THE ACTIONS OF MR. PUTIN--
A FORMER KGB OFFICIAL, HE’S STILL UNSURE OF WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR RUSSIA.
MIKE MCFAUL
“My own take on him is that he’s indifferent to democracy. He did not
come to power with a grand master plan to re-create Soviet dictatorship
– but when push comes to shove, and when it’s in his interests, he’s willing
to transgress the democratic rules of the game – to break the rules when
it’s in his own interests, and we’ve seen hints of that in the last three
or four months. It’s not a good sign. The good sign, though, is that society
and the elites in particular in Moscow have reacted against that. I suspect
we’re going to see in the next coming months a real struggle between forces
for democracy and Mr. Putin’s government. And who wins that battle, I think,
is still an open question.”
NARRATION
ANOTHER OPEN QUESTION… CAN THE LARGELY UNPROFITABLE RUSSIAN NEWS MEDIA
REMAIN FINANCIALLY VIABLE AND THEREFORE STRONG ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN SOME
LEVEL OF JOURNALISTIC INDEPENDENCE? THE GREATER THEIR FINANCIAL WOES --
THE MORE VULNERABLE THEY ARE TO INFLUENTIAL TYCOONS – KNOWN AS OLIGARCHS
— WHO HAVE USED MEDIA OUTLETS AS THEIR PERSONAL MOUTHPIECES.
DAVID BORGIDA, VOA-TV.
