Baltic Worlds 2019:1
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BALTIC WORLDSBALTIC A scholarly journal and news magazine. February 2019. Vol. XII:1. Blackmailing From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. of the Jews in Lviv February 2019. Vol. XII:1 BALTIC WORLDSbalticworlds.com • Putin’s grip on the state apparatus • Female representation in the spotlight • Media’s role during Euromaidan Power in Power in disguise in Power disguise also in this issue Illustration: Karin Sunvisson BELARUS IN MAPS / SEXUAL RIGHTS IN POST-SOVIET / HERITAGE IN RUSSIA / ART IN SKOPJE / NATIONALISM IN THE EU Sponsored by the Foundation BALTIC2 for Baltic and East European Studies contents 3 WORLDSbalticworlds.com colophon Baltic Worlds is published by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Södertörn University, Sweden. Editor-in-chief editorial in this issue Ninna Mörner Publisher Joakim Ekman Scholarly advisory council Thomas Andrén, Södertörn Power relations & imaginations University; Sari Autio-Sarasmo, Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki s there to be a late Russian spring? In an is also brought up in a peer-re- Universiy; Sofie Bedford, IRES, interview professor Olga Kryshtanovskaya viewed article by Roman Horbyk, peer-reviewed articles commentary Uppsala University; Michael gives her view on the current situation who is analyzing the role of Ukrai- 4 Ukrainian journalists between agency 70 Kaliningrad’s Gentile, Oslo University; Markus around the future presidential successor nian journalists that covered the and structure during Euromaidan, problematic exclave Huss (chair), Stockholm University; Iin Russia, and the potential political upheavals events of Euromaidan. Histori- status, Ingmar Oldberg Katarina Leppänen, University of Roman Horbyk connected to this shift in power. She claims that cally, media have often been loyal 33 Blackmailing of the Jews in Lviv as a Gothenburg; Thomas Lundén, the elites and the security services have serious to the state and military during reviews CBEES, Södetörn University; social phenomenon, Taras Martynenko 73 Understanding the splits and clashes and that there is an informal wartime, and this seems to be Kazimierz Musiał, University of geography of Belarus, rivalry. true also for Russian and Ukrai- essays Gdańsk; Barbara Törnquist Plewa, Andrej Kotljarchuk “I am probably expressing an alarmist at- nian media. Further, he argues, 28 The visibility of female politicians in the Centre for European Studies, Lund Blackmailing 75 Media reporting of titude of how the transition of presidential media can play a role as stabilizer Russian public sphere, Liudmila Voronova University the Ukrainian war, power in Russia will take place, but there are in worrisome times. in Lviv & Emil Edenborg Corresponding members Per Ekman serious grounds for such alarmism”, she says to “It seems tempting to con- It is difficult to overesti- 57 State integration vs. regional Aija Lulle, University of Latvia; 77 Writ in Water, Ilja Viktorov. clude that in a revolutionary situ- mate the role of black- exceptionalism, Bjarne Lindström Michael North, Ernst Moritz Clas Zilliacus She lists the qualities needed for Putin’s ation, when the traditional power mail in worsening the situation Arndt University Greifswald; interview 80 Path dependency successor and it seems to be a limit amount of collapses and can no longer fulfill of the Jews in Lviv during the Andrzei Nowak, Jagiellonian 20 Professor Olga Kryshtanovskaya on and the gendered candidates that meet those. its functions, society still cannot “Nazi occupation. Putin 4.0, Ilja Viktorov University, Kraków; Andrea Petö, consequences of the And, I might add, very few, if any, women. be left with a vacuum. In a mod- Page 33 Central European University, governance of the self, ern society, such a political vac- conference reports Budapest; Jens E. Olesen, Tihomir Topuzovski Réka Geambașu CAN A WOMEN TAKE a leading position in future uum can be filled by media and 45 Retracing solidarity, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Russia? In 2018 Ksenia Sobchak ran for presi- journalists (provided that levels 46 The fluidity of the Russian tradition, Greifswald; Olga Schihalejev, dent in Russia. The authors Liudmila Voronov of trust and the cultural tradition Anna Kharkina Tartu University and Emil Edenborg in an essay analyze the vis- allow it)/...” 48 Postsocialist revolutions of intimacy, Copyediting/proofreading ibility of female politicians in the Russian public Yulia Gradskova Matthew Hogg, Semantix AB; sphere. They note that running for president CAN SOLIDARITY be restored? 50 Spatial imagination and political notions Bridget Schäfer in a notoriously male-dominated sphere could Among many different other con- of the Baltic sea region, Thomas Lundén Layout hardly be considered an easy business. Accord- tributions in this issue Tihomir & Anne Hedén Sara Bergfors, Lena Fredriksson, ing to the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, Rus- Topuzovski reports from Skopje 52 Cease identification with territory, Serpentin Media sia is ranked 121st (out of 144) when it comes to on a new educational programme gender, race, and class, Charlotte Bydler Illustration the political empowerment of women. that explores to what extent so- Review of 54 Urban and rural transformation in CEE, Karin Sunvisson, Ragni Svensson Sobchak was, according to them, repre- cially engaged artistic practices Paul Sherfey Subscription sented in mainstream Russian media as an can contribute to reinventing the “Belarus in maps” Sofia Barlind “unruly woman” who was transgressing the principle of solidarity. This fur- Belarus was one of the Printed by existing patriarchal norms and rules, and she ther raises the question of what few countries in Europe Elanders Sverige AB was explicitly reminded by male journalists and vision culture and art can create that fought against the Nazis Printed: ISSN 2000-2955 TV anchors of the “real” and “traditional” role or how can they imagine the fu- but lost part of their territory Online: ISSN 2001-7308 a woman is supposed to play. ture. ≈ “after 1945. Contact Baltic Worlds Is media to be trusted? The role of media Ninna Mörner Page 73 [email protected] The content expresses the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Baltic Worlds. 4 peer-reviewed article peer-reviewed article 5 f people today have what ancient Greeks called “acme”, a UKRAINIAN peak in someone’s life, a Kyiv journalist turned politician by the name of Serhiy Leshchenko might well have enjoyed JOURNALISTS it over a few short weeks in September 2016. A few years BETWEEN AGENCY before that, he had become his country’s top journalist whose questions would send shivers down the president’s spine, and IN PURSUIT AND STRUCTURE the mass protest against the corrupt bigwigs he had unmasked led to his election as an MP. His articles were published in news- DURING EUROMAIDAN papers around the world, notably in The Guardian1 through by Roman Horbyk which he made much noise in the US presidential election hit- ting hard at Donald Trump’s campaign chief Paul Manafort and his connections to Ukrainian corruption. He also became the OF KAIROS hero of a large New Yorker feature.2 To crown his achievement, Leshchenko purchased an apartment in a high-class downtown development project in the Ukrainian capital3 — and thus put his own long-fostered authority under threat. The social media crowd was outraged with the bad taste of indulging himself in luxury while his country suffered from war and economic downturn. But it also turned out that Serhiy’s expenses did not match his earnings, which was scandalous for someone who made a name lambasting the tastelessness, embezzlement, and vices of the powerful. Defending himself, Leshchenko tried to appeal to his muckraker achievements, but this seems only to have made things worse. Many of his attackers made the argument that he failed to separate his professional and political work properly — that he became a half-politician/ half-journalist. Although only an individual case, this story re- flects a bigger arc of Ukrainian journalists gaining and spending power during and after Euromaidan, something I would like to take a closer look at here. Euromaidan itself convened, as is known, thanks to just two Facebook posts by an investigative journalist named Mustafa Nayyem, a close friend and a colleague of Serhiy Leshchenko (he was in the US at the time and could only participate from a abstract In this article, I examine the role of journalists during Euro- maidan in November 2013–February 2014. The conceptual- ization of a specific case of power, the media power (found in works by Bolin, Couldry, Curran, Hjarvard, Mancini, Zelizer, and others) basically oscillates between two extremes – that of regarding the media as heteronomous of the political field and that of arguing that the media increasingly influence other fields through processes of mediatization. What is the role of journalists in power relations? Under which conditions is the power of journalists – and their agency – likely to grow? This article presents the results of a series of interviews with Ukrainian journalists who covered the events of Euromaidan in different capacities. Validated with other evidence, their narratives suggest a positive power dynamic for the Ukrai- nian journalists during the protest events. KEY WORDS: Media, power, journalists, mediatization, Euro- The journalist Mustafa Nayyem maidan, Ukraine. on Euromaidan, November 2013. PHOTO: ALEXANDR ANDREIKO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 6 peer-reviewed article peer-reviewed article 7 distance), and who is now also an MP — but who seems to be a bit the specter of yet another theoretical conundrum, of agency ing about media. Its key presupposition is that a society has a more careful in his expenditures. Both of the posts were shared and structure, pondering the issue of primacy between the indi- center and that media stand in that center or provide access to over 3,000 times.4 Nayyem was then the most followed Ukraini- vidual’s own choices and institutions, structures, and resources it. Couldry found this presupposition to be less than persuasive an on Facebook with more than 30,000 subscribers,5 and within that either enable or prevent a specific type of action.