Only The Dirt Remains When The News Crews Leave

Michael Hedges April 19, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

News media, particularly those investigative specialists, are always a problem for rulers with that authoritarian bent. Thin-skinned presidents, kings, ministers and governors need adulation; criticism boils their blood. In days of yore solutions were far more simple; disappearance. Some would make whole swaths of their subjects disappear. With notepads, recorders and cameras popping up everywhere, dictators and their like are going after more efficient targets.

Russian authorities are certainly on a tear of late. Earlier this month (April 9) investigative reporter Roman Anin was paid that special visit to his Moscow apartment by agents of the Federal Security Services (FSB). Also raided the same day was the newsroom of iStories, a news portal he founded after leaving the highly regarded Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. “They confiscated everything: all flash drives, all computers,” said to news portal Meduza (April 10), “and not even mine. They confiscated phones that do not belong to me. They seized documents.”

This particular raid centered on his 2016 investigation for Novaya Gazeta that pointed an unwelcome klieg-light on politically exposed Russians. The report tied a super-yacht to state-owned oil company Rosneft chairman and chief executive Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister considered the second most powerful person in the Russian Federation. The super-yacht Princess Olga, now renamed Amore Vero, was valued at the time at US$150 million. A Caymen Islands company owns the boat. So bereft was Mr. Sechin that he filed a civil defamation claim against Novaya Gazeta saying the story had “no social significants.” A district court agreed, ordering a retraction from Novaya Gazeta and taking down its website for pandering to “the gratification of idle interest.” A criminal case is ongoing.

“They were especially interested in all the documents in English and the details of my studies at Stanford,” said Mr. Anin to Meduza (April 15). He was a journalism fellow at the California university in 2018 and 2019. “From their perspective, it’s not stupid because they want to punish this uppity journalist and his little new media project that dares to publish these big stories. And they don’t give a damn what society says.”

The online news portal DOXA, originally a Moscow School of Economics student, was raided last week (April 14), four editors briefly detained and their homes raided by agents of the infamous Investigative Committee. A video produced for DOXA reminded students that their rights of assembly under Russian Federation law prevented them from being kicked out of school was cited by the authorities as "engaging minors in actions that might be dangerous.” The student editors are not allowed to leave their homes, reported news portal Mediazona (April 15).

Medusa, itself, is a perfect example of the dilemma for the authorities as well as news publishers. It was set up by Galina Timchenko and about two dozen reporters who exited news portal Lenta in 2014. Under pressure, it relocated to Riga, Latvia. Novaya Gazeta has been published since 1993 and continues to report critically on social and political issues. Six of its reporters have been assassinated, including Anna Politkovskaya in 2006. Minority owners include former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev and former Aeroflot owner Alexander Lebedev. A new owner arrived at highly-respected business daily Vedomosti a year ago who subsequently fired the chief editor. Several staff editors then exited and set up news portal VTimes.

Reporters working for foreign news organizations are under increasing pressure in the Russian Federation. CNN correspondent Matthew Chance was detained (April 6) outside the prison holding dissident Alexei Navalny. He and his camera operator exited the Russian Federation “temporarily.” Similarly - and this is a timely thread - free-lance reporter Daria Komarova, under contract with RFE/RL regional news portal Idel.Realii, faces three court appearances on charges related to covering protests of the interment of Mr. Navalny, referred to as “participation in an unsanctioned rally.”

Taking the current temperature is US-funded RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). “The indications are that they want us to leave the country,” said RFE/RL president Jamie Fly to Reuters (April 7). On that day, notorious media regulator (read:censor) Roskomnadzor (RKN) detailed accumulated fines nearing US$1 million against RFE/RL for failure to note in all broadcasts its “foreign agent” status. Mr. Fly expressed concerns that individual employees could be pressed for payment.

A week later, Meduza (April 14) reported that “some” RFE/RL editorial staff are being offered relocation assistance from May. Those leaving will most likely go to the RFE/RL headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic or Kiev, Ukraine. There are about 50 full-time employees in Moscow and roughly 300 free-lancers like Daria Komarova scattered throughout the country. The broadcaster is also moving “high-value” equipment out of Moscow.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in the Russian Federation

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom

• Hot Topics - Investigative Reporting

• Hot Topics - Censorship