Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 29.04.2021

Photo by Yury Belyat / MBKh Media

Twenty years ago, a hostile takeover by the state of NTV, the first all-Russian TV channel independent of the state, took place. By common consent, NTV, established in 1993, became a world-class TV channel [in Russia] in a few years. But in 2001, a year after Vladimir Putin came to power, the TV channel was virtually eliminated, and in front of the entire country: it was deprived of its independence and transferred to the ownership of Gazprom. The reason for the destruction of NTV was its independent information policy, which really did not obey the Presidential Administration. Today it is hard to believe, but that was exactly the reputation of the former NTV with a multimillion audience. Therefore, then, in April 2001, thousands of people took to the streets in defence of the TV channel being destroyed by the authorities. There had already been the explosions of blocks of flats and the beginning of the Second Chechen War, further there had to be acts of terror in a theatre in Moscow and a school in Beslan, the murders of [Yabloko MP] Yury Shchekochikhin and [journalist and human rights activist] Anna Politkovskaya, the seizure of Crimea and the war in Donbass, all against the backdrop of complete nationalisation and subordination to the Kremlin of almost all politically significant media outlets.

Today, in April 2021, after two decades of Vladimir Putin’s rule, it can be stated that the free press has been virtually completely destroyed in Russia. Those individual media that still dare to speak up the truth and criticise the authorities are under unprecedented pressure. The past weeks only brought the following:

– an attack on the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta was committed with the use of chemicals (at the same time, the employees of the newspaper have been continuously facing serious threats against them);

– searches were carried out in the editorial office of Vazhniye Istorii (Important Stories) media, the editor-in-chief of the online edition was summoned for interrogation in the Investigative Committee;

– Radio Liberty, due to multimillion-dollar fines for non-observance of the rules of work of a “foreign agent” on the territory of the Russian Federation, is forced to minimise its activities in Russia;

– a criminal case was initiated against employees of the students magazine DOXA;

– the Meduza media was recognised as a “foreign agent”;

– the journalists who covered the latest street actions in Moscow were summoned to the police.

Obviously, the regime will not stop there. The pressure on journalists who are trying to professionally convey to citizens the truth about what is happening and about the essence of Russian authoritarianism will only grow. The authorities will continue with all their might to squeeze out of the Russian information field any agenda that can make people think about real life in the country. Putin’s system does not provide for not only a free press; this system has no place for real journalism at all. Mass media in such an authoritarian state as modern Russia perform exclusively a propaganda function, serve as a tool for manipulating public opinion, and a mechanism for brainwashing. Honest and professional journalism in our country today is possible only with a real risk to life.

Twenty years ago the state’s attack on the NTV television channel outraged millions of citizens of the country, and brought many of them to the streets (albeit to no avail), but today we observe almost complete indifference of people to the destruction of the free press. And this is also one of the results of the propagandists’ work: a burnt over information field, a lack of understanding of the role of the media in ensuring security, preserving the health of citizens, achieving economic efficiency and preventing impoverishment.

To understand the consequences of the lack of free media, suffice it to recall what happened after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 35 years ago. At that time, the lack of freedom of speech and independent media led to the fact that on 1 May, 1986, thousands of people took to festive demonstrations in the Soviet cities caught in the Chernobyl radiation zone, putting themselves and their children in terrible danger. There was simply no one in a completely deceitful Soviet state to convey to the people the truth about the mortal danger.

And now, in the absence of free media, the state lies about the true scale of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia (or deliberate distortion of official statistics) leads to disorientation in the fight against the virus, does not allow professionals to take the necessary measures both against the disease and the economic consequences of the epidemic. All this ultimately leads to new victims. The excess mortality rate in Russia amounted to 313 people per 100,000 inhabitants last year, which is much higher than in almost any other country in the world. It turns out that our human losses are enormous, but we do not know anything about them.

Lies have always been and remain the foundation of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, while the main condition for dismantling these regimes is freedom of speech, which exposes these lies. It is the ability of people to openly express their point of view, publicly say what they think, which sooner or later will lead to a change of regime. Because Putin’s system is incompatible in principle with either freedom of speech, or independent media, or honest professional journalists, or free people. And as soon as the freedom of speech emerge, this system will fall apart.

Source: https://www.yavlinsky.ru/article/nesovmestimost/

Grigory Yavlinsky

is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO, Vice President of Liberal International, PhD in Economics, Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.