Sunday, September 28, 2008

Where are we relative to Russia?

David Remnick's Letter from Moscow in the September 22nd New Yorker sheds light on the peculiar role the "independent" radio station Echo of Moscow plays inside of Russia's media-politics-policy complex, as well as its perfunctory role of informing the public. In the piece, Remnick reveals to the reader his personal use of Echo to keep abreast of the situation in Russia. It is his interviews with established members of the Russian media, however, that grant fascinating insight into whether or not Echo is successful as a media institution. In particular, the observations that former Kommersant editor Kirill Rogov made stand out:

“It’s been the best news service for a long time,” he said. “But is a free media outlet possible in an unfree country? I would say no. In a free country, the newspaper publishes a story, it influences television, it reaches the public, then it helps to shape the course of policy. In an unfree country, Echo of Moscow lives in isolation, on a kind of Indian reservation. It broadcasts a story or a discussion and it reaches an audience, but then it never goes any further.”

To be sure, the United States is a freer country that Russia when it comes to its media. On the Reporters Sans Frontères Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, the United States' media environment ranks as the 48th freest, while Russia is buried at 144th (out of 169). RSF highlights why specific countries appear as they do on the rankings; fortunately, they explain both America's and Russia's respective locations:

  • There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeera’s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.

  • Russia (144th) is not progressing. Anna Politkovskaya’s murder in October 2006, the failure to punish those responsible for murdering journalists, and the still glaring lack of diversity in the media, especially the broadcast media, weighed heavily in the evaluation of press freedom in Russia.

While there is no single person in the United States that wields as much influence over the media as Putin, there are several forces which dictate the breadth, depth, and context of media as it is broadcasted to the masses. In this sense, it is worth considering Rogov's perspective on what defines media as effective in a free country. Despite widespread exposure and criticism of the way the media has been treated by the United States government with regards to the War on Terror, U.S. policy has remained, for the most part, unchanged.

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