Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 14 – Many
observers were outraged by a Russian official’s suggestion that journalism
students should be taught to be prepared to write what their future bosses want
them to, a survey of younger Russian journalists finds that many of them are struggling
with this as they balance journalist ethics and a desire to keep their jobs.
Last Saturday, Deputy Communications
Minister Aleksey Volin told journalism students at Moscow State University that
their professors should “be honest” and tell their students that they must
learn to write what their bosses want, a view he repeated in “Izvestiya” the
next day (www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uRvPhz6kzPc
and izvestia.ru/news/544689).
The Kasparov.ru portal decided to
find out how young journalists now view such declarations by asking seven of
them: Should a journalist work for his bosses or strive for independence? Are
you willing to investigate stories that may have risks for you? Do you think
that journalists in Russia and in the West “live according to different laws?”
And “where in your view is Russian journalism heading?”
Yesterday, the portal’s Maria
Muromskaya and Marina Kurganskaya reported their findings. The answers they received provide some basis
for hope but far more reasons to be concerned that young Russian journalists
are prepared to follow the dictates of their bosses, something that can be
fatal for journalism in the best sense.
Elizabet, 22 and working at “Moskovsky
komsomolets,” said that “now it is fashionable to be an independent journalist or
to strive for that status,” but those who only want employment and nothing more
can be pushed to write what the bosses want, adding that she wasn’t prepared to
put her life at risk for a story. And she suggested that she “does not want to
think about where [Russian] journalism is heading.”
Olga, 24
and an employee of a Moscow television channel, said that it is so difficult to
get a position that “it isn’t appropriate to talk about working for ‘the bosses’
or for independence.” One would like to
work for independence, but that isn’t always possible. She said journalism
standards were high where she works but unfortunately not so high elsewhere.
Aleksandr,
26 and a journalist at “Farmvestnik,” said that a journalist should work for
his editors but try to avoid allowing owners to direct his or her output. He said he sensed that journalists in the
West enjoyed more protections but that in Russia there was “a sense of a
certain degradation of the profession.”
Tsvetelina,
22 and employed by “Moskovskiye novosti,” said that a journalist “must support
the corporate policy of the media where he works” but that he must choose where
he works so that he is close to the views of the editors and owners. In her view, Russian and Western journalism
are “practically two different worlds.” In the West, journalists have “much
higher corporate standards” than do their Russian counterparts.
Andrey, 29 and a reporter at
FirstNews, said that certain Russian media outlets require their journalists to
follow a line but others don’t, and therefore “here everything depends on the
personal choice” of a journalist to work in the one type or the other. In the West, too, he said, some journalists
have to do what their bosses want too.
Aleksandr, 22 and at “Moskovskiye
novosti,” said that the Internet has given journalists a choice: they can work
for a publication or be completely independent online “without the mediation of
the owner.” But even owners “already
cannot count on unqualified loyalty” from their employees.
And Nikita, 22 and at “Novaya
gazeta,” said that journalists do have a choice: if the bosses ask for
something that violates a journalist’s convictions, the journalist “does not
need to work at that publication.” And
he expressed the hope that despite what is happening in Russia just now,
journalism there is “moving toward a more civilized future.”
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