New Arrivals Find Welcome And Support, Not Danger Or Censors

Michael Hedges May 21, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Despite the rather made-for-TV portrayal as a bunch of itinerate nomads, journalists tend to stay put. There are personal reasons and professional. Their lives are typically centered around family and work, colleagues tend to share a lingua franca. Perhaps it’s the same with accountants. Employers are structurally locked in to offices, newsrooms, studios, not to forget transmitters and printing presses. The digital age has affected all this. So have despots.

A certain set of Russian media workers have, indeed, packed up and left. More than atmosphere has become crushing. The Russian Justice Ministry and notorious media regulator/censor Roskomnadzor have declared dozens of media workers and their employers “foreign agents,” imposing onerous sanctions. Many have been arrested and jailed. Publications, large and small, have been forced to close.

Latvia’s capital Riga has become locus operandi for dozens of exiled Russian media workers and several relocated outlets. “Moscow’s Fleet Street is in Riga,” observed Helsingin Sanomat (HS) editorial editor Jussi Niemeläinen (May 19). “When Russian rulers passed strict laws a week after the attack (on Ukraine) began, at the turn of February and March, many Russian journalists fled the country.” Mr. Niemeläinen is a former HS Moscow correspondent.

“At one time,” he explained, “many London newspaper offices were located on Fleet Street. Although publishing houses moved from the street decades ago, the name is still a concept in which Britain still refers to the entire press. There has been no such common concept in Russia. Russia's history is authoritarian, and independent media have not had time to become a strong institution in brief and exceptional moments of freedom.”

“Journalism independent of those in power became dangerous in Russia and its practice within the country virtually ceased. At the same time, Russia also got its own Fleet Street. Its name is Riga.”

Contemporaneously, the Reuters Institute at Oxford published (May 20) a comprehensive review of Riga’s development as a support hub for exiled Russian media workers by Benjamin Bathe, a freelance correspondent for German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle and others. He notes a recent “welcome and networking event” at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. While the event was “even jovial” those attending had remarkable, distressing stories.

“I couldn’t go to Tbilisi or Yerevan as plane tickets were already prohibitively expensive,” said Meduza investigative editor Alexey Kovalev. “And we had a dog, which we couldn’t just take on any flight.” He walked across the border into Estonia. “If I go back to Russia, there’s probably a criminal case waiting for me.” Another Russian writer talked of the night electricity to his apartment was shut-off and the ominous “Z” appeared on the door. He and his family immediately departed for Riga. “I’d only go back if there’s a regime change,” he said.

Meduza is one of the better known Russian exile publications. Several staff members and much of the operation fled to Riga in 2014. With unending pressure from Russian authorities more staff members made the journey though some remain in Moscow. They are in community with newly minted Novaya Gazeta Europa, off-shoot of Novaya Gazeta, whose founder Dmitry Muratov is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and new resident of Riga. After Russian broadcaster Ekho Moskvy was stricken from the airwaves in early March several former staff members relocated to Riga with designs to establish Ekho Europa. On a whole different scale, US-funded international broadcaster RFE/RL is in the process of building a “Russia hub” in Riga once suitable office space is found.

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