Ukraine and the West are accustomed to dividing the Russian media into two groups: state and liberal. As for the former, everything is more or less clear – after eight years of propaganda, Kiselyov, Soloviev, Simonyan and Skabeeva have become household names to mark the Russian propagandist journalism and are no longer taken seriously by any self-respecting audience.
At the same time, Meduza, Redaktsiya and Novaya Gazeta have been treated with respect, empathy and consideration by the Ukrainian media and readers, while their media management and reporting was considered highly professional. Russian authorities have banned the use of the word “war” in its media space, as well as criminalized “fake news”, meaning any news that does not rely on official state sources. As a result, some liberal Russian media, such as Dozhd, stopped broadcasting, and some were stopped from broadcasting, like Echo of Moscow, at most of the platforms. Russia has officially banned Twitter, Meta and is considering a ban of Youtube, leaving Telegram the only reliable platform for liberal journalism, and all other options unsafe.
Nevertheless, several influential liberal media are trying to follow suit, stay politically neutral and obey the law – most notably, Novaya Gazeta, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Redaktsiya. A recent post by Alexei Pivovarov, a former anchor of NTV, renown liberal journalist and the current editor-in-chief of Redaktsiya, outraged the pro-Ukrainian audience. He commented on the photos from Bucha and Irpen the way Russian state propaganda could: “It is not yet clear who these people are and how they died.”
It is becoming clear the Russian liberal media succumb to the pressure of state limitations and global canceling. A simple cold calculation can help reconsider former respect and trust for the Russian liberal media. They exist to escape from reality, not to reflect it – and, in many cases, to provide personal escape to the journalists themselves. Russian liberals live in non-existent Russia or outside of Russia, so their assessments do not help make realistic predictions.
They are not Ukraine’s allies in the war, but a tranquilizer for the smart. No doubt, being a professional journalist in Russia can be threatening to one’s life and livelihood. It is out of question, however, that the pressured Russian journalists should be treated by different standards than the Russian people who support Putin. Can independent Russian journalism in Russia remain professional despite following the rules of the Kremlin and covering from outside of Russia?
Speakers: Maria Avdeeva, Research Director at the European Expert Association Damian Herbowicz, Editor of the journal “Polityczna”, Poland Ruslan Deynychenko, CoFounder of StopFake Oleksandr Holubov, Data Analyst at Deutsche Welle, former journalist at Deutsche Welle (Ukraine) Mykola Balaban, Deputy Head of the center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.
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