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Press, Power Politics Press, Power & Politics EUROPE MEDIA FORUM JUNE 22, 2000 • LONDON Notion of free press in Russia Board of Trustees Charles L. Overby, chairman is deteriorating, columnist says and chief executive officer Peter S. Prichard, president A Russian journalist, at odds with the Harry W. Brooks Jr. direction of her country, warned that the gov- John E. Heselden ernment’s handling of two recent cases involv- Madelyn P. Jennings ing independent media may be symptomatic of Malcolm R. Kirschenbaum Bette Bao Lord deteriorating freedoms in her homeland. Brian Mulroney “If things go bad in Russia, no one will be Jan Neuharth safe on this continent,” said Yevgenia Albats, Will Norton Jr. an independent political analyst and colum- John C. Quinn Carl T. Rowan nist in Russia. Josefina A. Salas-Porras Albats spoke during a discussion about John Seigenthaler new Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Paul Simon press. Allen H. Neuharth, founder Putin figured in the arrests and detentions of Andrei Babitsky, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Editorial: Maurice R. Fliess, Rod Sandeen Photos: Scott Maclay Liberty correspondent, and Vladimir Gusinsky, Copy Editor: Christy Jerding founder of Media Most. The Freedom Forum World Center Babitsky, a Russian citizen, was put under 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209 USA house arrest in Moscow in January. He Columnist Yevgenia Albats says the Russian Tel: 703/528-0800 Fax: 703/284-3529 angered the Russian government with his government tried to kill broadcaster Andrei Babitsky. E-mail: [email protected] reports from Grozny during the most recent Internet: www.freedomforum.org Chris Wells, senior vice president/international war in Chechnya, a region in the Russian Susan Bennett, director/Asian and Federation fighting for independence. European programs At the time, 80% of the Russian media The Freedom Forum European Center were covering the war from the military point Stanhope House, Stanhope Place of view, Albats said. That imbalance helped London, W2 2HH, United Kingdom Tel: 44-171-262-503 Fax: 44-171-262-4631 lead public opinion to support the war, she E-mail: [email protected] said. Putin, who was handpicked by Boris John Owen, director/European Center Yeltsin to succeed him as president, won pop- The Freedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va., is a ularity by aggressively prosecuting the war. nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to Albats said Babitsky was hunted by the free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. Russians “and they tried to kill him.” But she The foundation focuses on four main priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment issues, newsroom diver- also said his reports were one-sided because sity and world press freedom. he was trapped in Grozny. The Freedom Forum funds two independent Babitsky, who joined the discussion via affiliates — the Newseum, the interactive museum telephone from Moscow, said his coverage was of news in Arlington; and the First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in balanced by the reporting being done by jour- Nashville, Tenn., and in New York City and Arlington. nalists covering the military side. Other operating offices are in San Francisco, Cocoa Speaking through an interpreter, Babitsky Former Financial Times bureau chief John Lloyd Beach, Fla., Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Johannesburg said he did not know how long his travel and London. says Russia will be weak for some time. The Freedom Forum was established in 1991 would be restricted to the Moscow area. under the direction of Founder Allen H. Neuharth as Albats said the Babitsky case “made it threat. “That was the main reason Gusinsky successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspa- clear that the new Russian administration is was arrested,” she said. per publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co., does not solicit or out to create a managed democracy.” John Lloyd, former East European editor accept financial contributions, and does not accept Vladimir Gusinsky of Media Most was and Moscow bureau chief for the Financial unsolicited funding requests. Its work is supported by arrested June 13 at the direction of Russia’s Times, characterized the Russian state as income from an endowment now worth more than prosecutor general and imprisoned for four lacking control over its institutions while suc- $1 billion in diversified assets. days. He was released in the wake of interna- cumbing to the influence of rich business- The Europe Media Forum was the second in a year- tional criticism but charged with fraud. people. He also said Putin was loyal “to the long series of discussions on the news media’s role (Charges were dropped July 27.) brotherhood of the KGB.” in communicating information about political cam- Albats, citing “well-placed sources,” said “Just because Putin was elected president paigns. The first forum was held in March in Lima, Putin did not order the arrest of Gusinsky, but (on March 26), these things didn’t change,” Peru. Other forums will be held in Accra, Ghana, in September and Jakarta, Indonesia, in November. “he didn’t say no.” Lloyd said. Russia will be a weak state for She said the Kremlin sees free press as a some time, he added. 2 MEDIA AT THE MILLENNIUM: EUROPE Britain’s new press restrictions called bewildering British journalists sounded the alarm over a clot of governmental actions that they say threaten freedom of the press. Among them are moves to: I Monitor e-mail messages and Web browsing. I Seize news photos of demonstrations. I Allow a libel suit against a U.S. magazine with tiny circulation in Great Britain. I Compel a TV network to change the hour of its late-night newscast. “The overall picture in Britain, for both broadcasters and the press, is not a happy one,” said Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian newspaper. Panelists discuss press restrictions before an audience at the headquarters of the Financial Times. Rusbridger said the developments are From left: Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian; Janet Street-Porter, Independent on Sunday ; Richard Tait, bewildering. He is purging his newspaper’s Independent Television News; Tony Hall, BBC; and moderator Robert MacNeil, broadcast journalist. computers of e-mail messages, even as he cau- demonstrations. On a positive note, he said the House of tions reporters to retain notes and tape record- To foil any newsroom raids, The Guardian Lords in October 1999 sided with The Sunday ings of interviews in the event of a libel suit. now ships photos of demonstrations to a place Times in a libel action brought by former Irish “You’re caught both ways,” he said. “If you don’t outside Britain within 24 hours “so that they’re prime minister Albert Reynolds. That decision keep your records, they can get you. If you do not there and the police can’t get them,” might give the press some protection when com- keep records, they get you.” Rusbridger said. menting on matters of public interest, he said. In May The Guardian said in an article that The libel case involving a U.S. publication Forum moderator and Newseum trustee Britain’s MI5 intelligence service “is reported to was brought by Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Robert MacNeil, a broadcast journalist with be building a new [25 million pound] surveil- associate of former Russian president Boris experience on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, lance system … to monitor e-mails and other Yeltsin, and Nikolai Glouchkov, managing asked whether British broadcasters are more Internet messages sent and received in director of Aeroflot airline. The House of Lords inhibited by government regulation than Britain.” That report followed a London judge’s ruled that the Russian businessmen can sue Britain’s print press. “I think probably about order that The Guardian and its sister Forbes magazine in English courts even though the same,” Rusbridger replied, noting that all Observer newspaper hand over any e-mails or fewer than 2,000 copies of the magazine were British journalists are affected by the e-mail notes pertaining to a whistleblowing former sold in England. monitoring threat, the libel laws, the “toothless, MI5 security officer, David Shayler. The news- Rusbridger said it would have “immense useless” new Freedom of Information Act, and papers successfully appealed the order. implications for American journalism” if the the Official Secrets Act. Rusbridger told the forum he had found that plaintiffs prevail. On June 22, the day of the forum, the Lon- it is “remarkably difficult to purge an don newspapers ran front-page sto- e-mail. … When we first had warning ries about the Independent Televi- that the government would come sion Commission’s effort to force after us … I thought I had managed the ITV network to give up its to purge every e-mail in the system, 11 p.m. newscast and return to the and then found there was some back- 10 p.m. slot the newscast occupied up copy to a backup copy.” for three decades until March 1999. At the Independent on Sunday, “We have not had a situation Editor Janet Street-Porter said e- like this before, where a network mail has been heavily relied upon, and a regulator have been on a not only for intra-staff communica- complete collision course,” said tions but also for transmitting sto- Richard Tait, editor in chief of ries. “We’re (now) looking at ways of Independent Television News, … receiving [such information] in which supplies news to ITV and to different forms,” she said. two other television channels. “I’m Street-Porter also described as afraid at this stage your guess is as “an ominous development” the effort The Freedom Forum’s Allen H. Neuharth meets with former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher after the Europe Media Forum.
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