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 Alexander TKACHENKO,
General Director, Russian P.E.N.
Confidants
The relations between the power and the media in Russia have strikingly changed since only two years back when the information security doctrine emerged. The doctrine, proposed by former Russian National Security Council Chairman, Sergei Ivanov, tasked the government to take control of the independent press along with the independent journalists, publishers, etc. As a result, we lost the old NTV, the new Channel 6 and many others. But, what important is that we lost our confidence that Russia needs strong independent personalities, which could posses capital, independent media, and, therefore, their own independent views.
Has there been more or less freedom of speech in Russia after Yeltsin’s departure? Apparently, less. Although, the first Russian president did not rushed to lie under the train as he had promised after the Gaidar reforms, he would nevertheless stand up firm for the freedom of speech — say, it is sacred; do not touch it! Yastrzhembsky, one of the Kremlin leaders, openly and ambiguously declares today: “ We have finally put an end to the bacchanalia of the freedom of speech”. The media have found themselves gripped in a vice of the invisible government policy and the open, often physical, pressure from governors, mayors, the mob and different groups. Self-censorship, the abuse of the freedom of speech for the purpose of misinformation and undisguised lies by the journalists themselves, especially, the journalists from the state television channels should be added to this list, too. They are telling lies without a smile.
I think that in a true sense of the word, there is no freedom of speech in Russia. There are only the degrees of freedom. What happens in Moscow is not something what is taking place in the provinces. The murders of journalists in Tolliatti, Smolensk, Rostov-on-Don, the recent reprisals against the journalists from a local newspaper in Penza, which was the center of conflict between the governor and the mayor for the controls over the outlet, demonstrate the price of the word and how the journalists on the side and those who are afraid of the free word and glasnost are fighting for it.
There are dozens of cases, when journalists were harassed for having attempted to tell the truth: Sergei Zolovkin (Novaya Gazeta, Sochi). German Galkin (Vecherniy Chelyabinsk), Marina Popova (MK, Vladivostok), Anna Politkovskaya (Novaya Gazeta) and many others. When authorities themselves behave dissolutely and sometimes criminally, people start having their hands loosened. The killing of the Czar and the state-sponsored terror of the Soviet authorities are instructive historic examples. The simple folks realized that if the czar could be killed and generals could be executed without a trial, they could do everything with more mortals.
The second war campaign in Chechnya, the introduction of the implicit military censorship have placed the Russian society in a difficult situation. The society has totally accepted the government’s version of the war and embarked on internal genocide, supported with pseudo-patriotic sentiment, promoted to the level of almost semi-Nazi attitude towards other nationalities. Jews, Georgians, Azeris… By the way, Russian democrats have become the hated nationality, too. This has not happened in Russia long ago. Zone. Godfather. Confidants. Authorities play a confidant game with us.
For instance, the authorities tell us: we need to clean up the Russian language. Stupid. The language will clean up itself, anyway. Nobody but politicians and bureaucrats pollute the language the most. But, when we lift a cup in the confidant game, we can see that they are not defending the language. Rather, they are cleaning up literary people, who see the world in a different way. The first literary dissidents — Vladimir Sorokin, Bayan Shiryanov — have emerged. Aesthetes, no politics involved. But, let us recall Andrei Siniavsky, who said at a trial in 1968: “I have purely aesthetic divergences with the authorities.” Here we go.
The authorities tell us: Grigory Pasko is a spy, and put him into a high-security camp. Cups and thimbles, again. Because, right at the same time, they are using that noise cover to finish investigation into the Kursk submarine tragedy and save the true war criminals — admirals — from prosecution to either the Council of Federation [upper chamber of the Russian parliament] or another fleet. This is what the system of information security is all about. Most importantly, they always refer to courts. They say, go to courts and they will judge you. However, over the past several years, not a single court has taken side of those illegally offended or insulted. And, the guarantor of the Constitution is not even thinking about helping them. On the contrary, he calmly says: you are going to have your mouth full of court dust. Here comes the punishment without the crime.
I have just returned from Vladivostok and Ussuriysk where I visited Grigoriy Pasko. At this time, I was visiting him with almost no purpose. Because, they have already got their business done. I was visiting him simply to support him as a friend. It is twenty-first century now, but the destination for an intellectual is the same: jail.
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