The Press

We thank Cameron Sawyer for responding to my request for a comment on the Russian media: "Russia has a vigorous, noisy, and highly critical press. I have never heard anyone say that there is any manipulation of the print media in Russia, and it would be hard to imagine, given what they print. Television is another matter there was a scandal a few years ago when the management of NTV was cleaned out; the persons fired said that it was under pressure from the government. No one seems to know for sure whether there was any such funny business ; the controversy continues to this day. But television journalism is also noisy, critical, and highly intelligent (worlds better than what we get in the U.S.). So if there is any manipulation, it must be pretty subtle. General bias might be found in two areas: the war in Chechnya, where the brutality is clearly underreported, and regarding Communism, where the Russian press sometimes resembles a John Birch screed. But these two weak points reflect the general attitude of the Russian public (or in the case of Communism, the Moscow intelligentsia) and does not appear to come from government pressure. All in all, I would have to say that the press is in pretty good shape in Russia. To equate it with the press in Haiti is clearly ridiculous.

A real landmark in the development of the Russian press was the "Kursk" disaster a couple of years ago, the nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine which sank in the Barents Sea, killing all aboard. The government, including the president, handled this at first in classical Soviet style, downplaying the event, lying about it, and stonewalling with the facts. The Russian press would have none of it there was a media storm. The whole country was glued to their television sets while rescue crews tried to get at the trapped sailors. There was round the clock live coverage on all of the networks, and the lying generals and admirals, and the president, too, were ridiculed mercilessly. The press instinctively played its proper role in a democratic society calling the government to task: What are you, our public servants, doing to solve this situation?"

Putin learned his lesson from this. Yesterday, when the hostages were freed from the Moscow theater, he gave a superb, moving television address to the nation, apologizing for not saving everyone (with tears in his eyes), praising the rescuers, condemning world terrorism, and really connecting with the public in great contrast to the situation a few years ago when the "Kursk" went down.

As to the attitude of the Orthodox Church, I really have no idea. The Orthodox Church is more mystical than Western churches, and less worldly, and so is not much involved in politics".

Ronald Hilton - 10/27/02