Media in Russia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Media in Russia ( Russian Средства массовой информации , abbreviated: СМИ ) includes communication media such as newspapers, radio, television and the Internet.

The largest companies currently on the Russian media market are the state media holdings WGTRK or Rossija Sevodnja and Gazprom-Media , a subsidiary of the majority state-owned company Gazprom . Non-state media reach no more than ten to 15 percent of the Russian population, 90 percent of whom get information on television.

history

The media in Russia has been largely dominated by the state since its beginnings in the Tsarist era.

Many supraregional media - for example the ITAR-TASS news agency , the Izvestia or Moskowskije Novosti newspapers - have their roots in the early Soviet Union . Others, like the Wirtschafts-Zeitung Kommersant , were newly founded during the glasnost period; they saw themselves partly in the tradition of pre-revolutionary papers published in tsarist Russia.

The electronic mass media of radio and television were established in the Soviet Union and, after a brief period of opening up after the collapse of the Soviet Union, are also dominated by the state in modern Russia.

Before industrialization

Forerunners of the first newspapers were the so-called Kuranten or Mitteilungsbriefe, also called Kurantbriefe (Russian Куранты or Вестовые письма). They published extracts from articles from foreign newspapers in Russian translation. They were made for the tsar in the tsarist foreign office in the 16th century. At the time of Alexei I , the Foreign Office had subscribed to about twenty foreign newspapers, mainly Dutch, German and Polish editions. The transmission of information through Kurantbriefe was extremely slow and unreliable - the Russian envoys were often given authentication certificates in the name of Western European rulers who were long dead.

First foundation by the tsar

Peter the Great

Tsar Peter the Great is considered to be the founder of the Russian newspaper industry . Under his reign, from January 2, 1703, the state-issued news about military and other things worth knowing and remembering that happened in the Muscovite and other surrounding countries appeared (Russian: "Ведомостей о военных и иных делах, достойнах, достойн и памяти, случившихся в Московском государстве и в иных окрестных странах "). The newspaper, renamed Russian News (Российские Ведомости) in 1726 , sold rather poorly and ceased to appear in 1728. From the beginning of 1728 the Russian Academy of Sciences published the Saint Petersburg News (Санкт-Петербургские Ведомости), which appears twice a week, followed in 1729 by the German-language Saint Petersburg newspaper , which is also published by the Academy and is still published today.

The newspaper industry until 1860

Was also editor-in-chief: Katherina the great

The Russian newspaper landscape in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century was characterized by a number of characteristics: The publication of a newspaper was approved directly by the Tsar. The editorial department was under the direct supervision of the state authority and the censorship, the latter was sometimes understood directly as the editor's superior authority. Articles were submitted directly to the authority responsible for the subjects dealt with in the article before publication. There were a number of short-lived start-ups, most of which quickly ceased to appear due to a lack of subscribers. In view of the censorship, the newspapers switched to thematic supplements on art and literature.

Thematically, the newspapers of this period can be divided into:

  • Satirical newspapers of an entertaining character (such as the newspaper Everything Possible in Russian: Всякая Всячина, the publisher and editor-in-chief was Katherina the Great )
  • Newspapers with an encyclopedic educational nature such as Leisure time used for benefit Russian: Праздное Время, в пользу употребленное
  • Newspapers with a special topic such as the Sank Petersburg doctor's news (Russian: Санкт-петербургские Врачебные Ведомости)
  • Agricultural newspapers such as Der Landbewohner, economic edition for the benefit of the villagers Russian: Сельский житель, экономическое в пользу деревенских жителей служащее издание.

Media in the Soviet Union 1917–1991

Basically, the media situation in the USSR was legally shaped by state monopoly. At that time the media were understood as instruments of the party and were strictly censored. Their criteria determined the media landscape and the design of the different formats in terms of form, content and language, but also the way in which the audience perceived and "consumed" media products. The introduction of the new, electronic mass media (radio from around 1920 and TV (daily broadcasts) from around 1950) took place under the sign of ideologization and monopoly. Although the entire spectrum of contemporary media was available, the production and reception of newspapers and magazines was limited to a few: the most widespread titles include Pravda, Izvestija and the trade union newspaper Trud (cf. Besters-Dilger). From 1951 the first channel broadcast its daily program, from the 1960s a second, Russia-wide channel was added. The third channel was aimed primarily at Moscow.

Media from perestroika

From the mid-1980s, during the glasnost era, the strict control of the Soviet media weakened somewhat under Gorbachev. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the privatization of the media from 1991 as well as the legally anchored prohibition of censorship in the law of the Russian Federation on the mass media of February 8, 1992 triggered a veritable boom in the media scene. This period (from 1991 to 1994) is often referred to as the “golden age” of the media (cf. Kreisel 2001). Numerous newspapers, magazines and television stations were founded during this time, and existing media changed their line, their content, design and design. The diversity in the media landscape was generally expressed not only in the increase in expenses and programs, but also in their (also linguistic) design. New genres, v. a. Live programs, talk and reality shows on TV, for example, emerged. Compared to the Soviet era, which in public speech was determined by the bureaucratic-formulaic Newspeak , the new freedom, the possibility of breaking norms and the willingness to experiment also in style and language became apparent. Likewise, the primary functions of the media - propaganda and ideologization - have been replaced by the functions of entertainment and information. The status of journalists also changed against the backdrop of a free media landscape: they were perceived as serious individuals with a real message instead of being viewed as party officials (cf. e.g. Duskaeva 2003).

The “golden age of the media”, characterized by privatization and diversity, did not last long, however. With the newspaper depression in 1994 and finally the economic crisis in Russia in 1998, the media came under increasing (financial) pressure and thus became dependent on financially strong donors. In the Yeltsin era , numerous important media were taken over by groups of Russian oligarchs .

Development since 2000

The creation of the image of the little-known Vladimir Putin and the election victory in 2000 were largely created by the mass media. Knowing this, the following government saw media control, in the words of sociology professor Anna Amelina, "as a prerequisite for the president's continued popularity and success in politics."

Since Putin's election, but even more so since the protests against President Putin after the Russian parliamentary elections in 2011 , a number of media have been taken over by state-controlled holdings or by subsidiaries of state-owned corporations and are thus - especially when it comes to television (as the central medium in Russia) - almost without exception under political control . In 2016, press critic Natalija Rostova asked 100 journalists in Russia about their experiences of suppressing opinions. 92 of the journalists stated that the media did bias reporting and 87 affirmed the existence of censorship , with 72 of the respondents having faced opportunities of censorship while working. According to the majority, the worst time for the media is after 2012, with some citing the first two terms of President Putin's office as the worst. The freest period for 73 of the journalists was Yeltsin's reign, which preceded that of Putin.

The concentration of the state media began when, in 2001, after the arrest of Vladimir Gussinski, the state energy giant Gazprom took control of the NTW television station , the only nationwide broadcaster that reported critical of the actions of the Russian army in Chechnya . After Boris Berezovskis, a friend of Putin, showed solidarity with his rival Gussinsky, his station ORT was taken over with questionable methods. At the same time, there were sanctions against two Media-Most print media, which had also reported critical of Chechnya and the Putin's government's clumsy handling of the sinking of the K-141 Kursk nuclear submarine : The Sevodnja daily newspaper (Today) was discontinued , the editor-in-chief of the successful weekly Itogi (balance sheets) was fired.

In September 2003, an oil magnate who was not disciplined by the Kremlin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky , took over the liberal weekly newspaper Moskowskije Novosti for the last time in order to provide a forum for the opposition parties he supported, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko in the upcoming election campaign. This political commitment is considered to be an important reason for Khodorkovsky's arrest in October 2003.

According to Reporters Without Borders, a number of independent newspapers were forced to give up in 2005 due to heavy fines. Newspapers that dealt with the war in Chechnya were effectively blackmailed because there were no state advertisements. The work permits of American ABC journalists were not renewed after the station broadcast an interview with the Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev .

In an open letter in 2008, Mikhail Gorbachev spread optimism about the freedom of the press: Despite all the justified criticism, "we have numerous newspapers that use glasnost in practice and write freely today."

According to Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskow , the “centralized Kremlin-controlled messaging” as stated in Die Zeit is legitimate: “A propaganda instrument is an inalienable attribute of every state. There's something like that everywhere. Accordingly, it has to be in Russia too. "

In early August 2014, two weeks after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, the only nationwide television program left for Russia was put on Ren TV , which had a reputation for following independent and critical reporting towards the government. A producer at the time described that when the MH17 was shot down, the broadcaster would never have been able to consistently report on it in the way it was then.

Since 2016, foreign participation in a relevant media company may not exceed 20 percent.

Freedom of the press

The 2008 Democracy Report by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation painted “a gloomy picture of freedom of the press in Russia ”.

In the longer term, Freedom House last assessed the press in Russia as “partly free” in 2002 , and since then as “not free” , and saw a general downward trend: The press freedom score fell continuously from 60 (2002) to 83 (2015 and 2016, worst possible value 100).

Although there are a large number of media and print media in Russia, the majority of them are under state control. Criticism of the Kremlin is therefore impossible.

The control can be of different types:

  • Direct state control: the state controls directly, such as Rossiyskaya gaseta or the TASS news agency
  • Via state-owned companies: the media are in the hands of mostly state-controlled companies, such as the daily Izvestia (via Gazprom-Media , part of the state-controlled Gazprom group ) or the former RIA Novosti news agency when it became part of the state-owned media group WGTRK belonged (today Rossija Sevodnja and directly owned by the state)
  • About entrepreneurs loyal to the Kremlin: Entrepreneurs who are closely connected with state-affiliated companies buy their own media empires on the media market; In 2007, Alisher Usmanov acquired the daily Kommersant , which according to the organization Reporters Without Borders had been one of the "last bastions of the independent media"
  • Nationalization of printing companies
  • Reprisals and intimidation measures: have led to self-censorship in many editorial offices
  • Admission of journalists: “If the president or another representative of the Kremlin gives a press conference, only journalists who report in a pro-government manner are admitted. Beyond that, questions may only be asked that have been discussed in advance with the President's press staff. ”( Grigori Pasko in an interview) In 2017, accreditations for the Confed Cup were only possible with the proviso that they only reported on the venues.
  • In Russia, many television programs are broadcast with a time delay so that there are no spontaneous errors with "wrong" information. Radio stations, on the other hand, often broadcast live.

Independent media are limited to Moscow and larger cities. The financial situation of the independent media is extremely bad. Due to the low purchasing power of the population and the poor advertising situation - in the case of Novaya Gazeta, for example, through pressure on advertising customers - they suffer from chronic financial shortages. In addition (as in the Novaya Gazeta case) there are tax, criminal or civil law proceedings initiated by state institutions. In July 2015, the newspaper received its second warning from the regulator. It can thus be officially closed at any time. The reason was a violation of the ban on public cursing, which had been seen as a return of censorship with its arbitrariness even before its introduction .

Several unmanaged media outlets in Russia, such as the TV broadcaster Doschd, lost their national reach during President Putin's third term in office. At the same time, bloggers , whose blog is read 3000 times a day, have had to register as "news media" since May 2014.

The sociologist Nikolai Wakhtin emphasized the role of the media with regard to the “public speechlessness of the Russians” : “If we had a different television [...], we would have a completely different statehood.” This also applies to the regional perspective: By 2010 it was established that there were dozens of independent media at the regional level and hundreds at the local level, but that there were thousands of dependent media, the overwhelming number of which could be described as administrative appendages and "hardly media".

Vague laws allow the state to take action against unpopular media; all media and internet content has been monitored since 2015 by a state agency using monitoring software and hundreds of "media watchers".

Violence against journalists

Between 1993 and 1999, 201 journalists were murdered in Russia according to statistics from the Russian Journalists' Union. ( Roland Haug counts 261 attacks in his book Die Kreml AG .) Among the most famous cases are the attacks on the employee of the daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets , Dmitri Cholodow († 1994), and on the general director of the TV station ORT Vladislav Listjew († 1995).

According to the organization Reporters Without Borders, since President Putin took office in March 2000, 13 contract killings had taken place until the end of 2006, none of which were brought to court. (Roland Haug names 16 attacks during the same period.)

A list of the " World Association of Newspapers " for the year 2000, which also included the murdered press photographers, named two other victims, Vladimir Jazina and Alexander Jefremov. In addition, there is the death of the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta , Yuri Shchekochichin, who died in Moscow in 2003 under unexplained circumstances.

Violent attacks on journalists in Russia
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
to October
Unnatural
deaths 		16 17th 19th 10 14th 7th 9
Violent attacks
on journalists
and editorial rooms 		73 102 99 120 83 75 58
Source: Analyzes of Russia No. 118 from November 17, 2006 (PDF file; 295 kB)
Research Center for Eastern Europe

Known victims of attacks

2000

  • Vladimir Jazina , 51, a photographer with Russian ITAR-TASS , was kidnapped by Chechen militia members on July 19, 1999 and murdered on February 20, 2000, according to two previous hostages.
  • Aleksander Jefremov , 41, photo correspondent for the West Siberian newspaper Nasche Vremja , was the victim of a rebel attack on May 12, 2000 in Chechnya. Yefremov was traveling as a companion in a military vehicle.
  • Igor Domnikov , 41, of Novaya Gazeta , was knocked unconscious in front of the entrance to the house where he lived in Moscow on May 12, 2000 and died in hospital two months later without regaining consciousness.
  • Sergei Novikov , 36, from Radio Wesna was killed on July 26, 2000 in Smolensk by four gunshots in the stairway of the house where he lived. Novikov owned the independent broadcaster that criticized the provincial government. Three days earlier he had attended a televised discussion of corruption in the Deputy Governor's office.
  • Iskandar Khatlonij , 45, from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , was murdered in Moscow on September 21, 2000. Chatlonij worked for the Tajik service of RFE / RL; he dealt with human rights violations in Chechnya.
  • Sergei Ivanov , 30, head of Lada-TV , an influential local television station, was murdered on October 3, 2000 in Togliatti . Ivanov was shot five times in the head and chest in front of his home.
  • Sergei Loginov , editor-in-chief of Lada-TV , was found unconscious three weeks later, on October 28, 2000. In media reports, the case is listed as a murder, the Russian authorities speak of an accident.
  • Adam Tepsurgayev , 24, cameraman for Reuters , wasshot deadon November 21, 2000 in front of his neighbor's house in Alkhan-Kala , Chechnya . He shot footage from the battle area. During the First Chechen War (1994–1996) he worked as an assistant for foreign journalists.

2001

  • Eduard Markewitsch , 29, editor of Novi Reft, died on September 18, 2001 in Reftinsky in Sverdlovsk Oblast from a shot in the back. His local newspaper criticized local officials.

2002

  • Natalja Skryl , 29, from the newspaper Nasche Vremja , was killed on March 9, 2002 in Taganrog . As a business reporter in Rostov-on-Don, Skryl reported on the struggle for control of a metallurgical combine. According to the CPJ , her body was so mutilated that her father could not identify the body.
  • Valery Ivanov from Tolyattinskoye Obosrenije was killed on April 29, 2002 in Togliatti from close range by eight shots in the head. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine that covered crime and corruption.

2003

  • Dmitri Schwez from TV-21 was killed by several gunshots on April 18, 2003 in Murmansk in front of the building of his transmitter. He was the deputy general manager of the local television station. He had received several threats after critical reports about politicians.
  • Yuri Shchekochichin , 53, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta , died on July 3, 2003 in Moscow under unexplained circumstances.
  • Alexei Sidorow , Ivanov's successor as editor-in-chief of Tolyattinskoje Obosrenije , was attacked by an unknown person on October 9, 2003 and stabbed with a sharp object.

2004

  • Jelena Tregubova , 35, whocriticizes Putin's media policyin her book The Mutants of the Kremlin , survived a bomb attack in February 2004. The Moscow militia rated the incident as "serious hooliganism" or an attempt at "serious theft" and declared that there was no reason to believe that a politically motivated attack would take place.
  • Paul Klebnikov , 41, from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, died on July 9, 2004 in Moscow when a car was being shot several times in front of the editorial office. The magazine reported on the goings-on of the Russian billionaires.

2005

  • Magomedsagid Varisow of the weekly Novoye Delo died after his car was taken under machine gun fire on his return home on July 28, 2005 in Makhachkala in Dagestan . He had regularly criticized leading Dagestani politicians.

2006

  • Ilya Simin , 33, a reporter for the NTW television station , was found dead on February 26, 2006 in his Moscow apartment. It could not be clarified whether the crime had a political background. In the annual report of "Reporters Without Borders" both the murder of Ilya Simin and that of Yevgeny Gerasimenko were listed as "work-related murders".
  • Yevgeny Gerasimenko , editor of the Saratovsky Rasklad , an independent weekly newspaper from Saratov , researched economic corruption . He was suffocated with a plastic bag over his head on July 26, 2006. The act is said to have been committed by a 39-year-old homeless man. The court spoke of a robbery in its judgment.
  • Anna Politkovskaya , 48, from Novaya Gazeta was shot dead in her home in Moscow on October 7, 2006.
  • Anatoly Voronin , 55, chief economic officer of the ITAR-TASS news agency , was murdered on October 16, 2006 in Moscow. His driver found Voronin stabbed to death in his apartment.

2007

  • Ivan Safronov , 51, a military journalist, dies in a lintel window. "Ivan Safronov has tackled hot topics, but he was not an opposition," said the spokesman for the space company EADS , Gregor von Kursell, to the media. The Russian judiciary began the investigation under Section 110 (“causing suicide”).

2008

  • Ilyas Shurpayev , 32, a reporter for the state television broadcaster Pervy kanal ( First Channel ), was stabbed in his home on March 21, 2008 and strangled with a belt. He had mainly reported from the Russian republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus.
  • Gaji Abashilov , 58, the head of the Dagestani branch of the WGTRK ( All-Russian State Television and Radio Company ), wasshot deadon March 21, 2008 in front of a shop in the capital Makhachkala .
  • Magomed Yevloev , 37, who runs the Ingushetiya.ru news website , died on August 31, 2008 as a result of being shot in the head while he was in police custody. Yevloev was arrested at the airport of the Ingushetian capital Magas afterarrivingwith the Ingushetian President Murat Sjasikov . During the flight there should have been a violent argument between the two.
  • Michail Beketow , 50, a local journalist from Chimki , was injured so badly by strangers on his own property in mid-November 2008 that he could hardly speak because of a brain injury and one lower leg and four fingers had to be amputated. He had reported on the illegal marketing of forest properties in the suburb of Moscow and died at the age of 55 on April 8, 2013.

2009

  • Anastassija Baburova , 25, a freelancer for Novaya Gazeta , wasshot dead in the street in Moscow onJanuary 19, 2009 following a press conference together with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov . Baburova spoke to the lawyer because he represented Mikhail Beketov and Elsa Kungayewa's family, among others.
  • Natalia Estemirova , 50, a Russian historian, journalist and human rights activist, waskidnappedin Grozny on July 15and found murdered on the evening of the same day.
  • Malik Akhmedilov , a Dagestani journalist with the Avar newspaper Chakikat, was found shot dead on August 11th.

2011

  • Gadzhimurad Kamalov , a Dagestani journalist and editor of the Chernovik newspaper, was shot dead in front of the newspaper's editorial office on November 15.

2013

  • Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev , 53, a Dagestani journalist for the weekly newspaper Novoje Delo , was shot dead in front of his house on July 9.

See also: en: List of journalists killed in Russia

Social media

Social media activities in Russia are experiencing an exceptionally strong boost in the course of government Internet funding . In contrast to the western markets, this applies to both the national and leading international platforms.

National platforms such as B. Vkontakte.ru or Odnoklassniki.ru showed higher growth rates than Facebook . Cultural and economic framework conditions as well as proximity to the market are reasons, another fundamental requirement is the size of the home market. In addition to the Russian market, only a handful of other countries meet this basic requirement: USA, China, Japan; to a limited extent India and Indonesia. A close friend of Putin, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, took full control of the largest network, VKontakte, in 2014. The founder of VKontakte, Pawel Durow , had long resisted revealing user data to the domestic intelligence service.

The reader

In addition to the harassment of the government, a lack of awareness among the population as well as among some journalists and representatives of the judiciary stands in the way of a free media landscape. Quite a few journalists and judges socialized in the Soviet Union are used to reporting in the interests of the government or to condemn people who act against the interests of the government.

In a survey in July 2001 in Russia's regions, 29 percent believed that the existence of non-state media is harmful. In another poll in September of the same year, 38 percent found that increasing control of the media would be positive for the state. One possible explanation for this attitude is the significant improvement in general living conditions - for example, the timely payment of wages, which was not a matter of course in the Yeltsin era - soon after Putin took office and the resulting broad support for Putin's policies.

The main media

The list follows the information provided by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the British television company BBC , the Russian companies responsible for media monitoring Comcom and mediaatlas.ru, as well as the information provided by the Research Center for Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen .

The information on ownership structure follows in brackets.

News agencies

TV channel

Television is the main source of information for over 80 percent of the population and the only source of information with nationwide coverage. In the case of television channels, the weekly reach as a percentage of the total population of Russia (3rd quarter 2006) and then the names of the owners are given in brackets.

Nationwide

  • First channel (reach 86.2 percent of the population of Russia; the state is majority owner)
  • Rossija (79.1 percent; part of the state media holding WGTRK)
  • NTW (60.8 percent; majority owned by state-controlled Gazprom-Media )
  • Ren TV (31.2 percent), controlled by the Rossiya Bank
  • STS (55 percent; owner: STS Media, in which the Alfa Group Michail Fridmans owns 26 percent, the Swedish Modern Times Group 40 percent, 25 percent belong to anonymous investors, 9 percent to a Russian capital investment company)
  • TNT (38.9 percent; Gazprom Media )
  • RBK (20 million viewers per month, to media company RBK )

Regional

  • TWZ (19.4 percent; Moscow city administration)
  • Rossija K (18.6 percent; part of the state media holding WGTRK)

Radio station

There are also a large number of regional and local broadcasters.

Daily newspapers

The editions are given in thousands, according to their own information:

Weekly newspapers, monthly newspapers and magazines

Independent media

The Novaya Gazeta , which is under the control of the oligarch Alexander Lebedev and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is, is known for its investigative journalism. There is also critical reporting in the business newspaper RBK , which, however, also changed ownership and structure from 2016, the Kommersant and Vedomosti , as well as some regional newspapers.

The television station Doschd , which has been thrown back on the Internet, and the radio station Echo Moskwy are the only remaining critical electronic media.

The remaining independent broadcasters within Russia are often seen as a fig leaf .

Foreign media

The foreign broadcasters Radio Liberty , Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle report in Russian. Swissinfo and the BBC also report in Russian.

The work of foreign correspondents in Russia is regulated by accreditations and licensing requirements. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times said in 2017 that he had been waiting for a permit to visit the port of Jamal for a year, while a colleague had waited three months for a permit to travel to the border zone at Ivanogrod . The state media also fueled the image that foreign journalists are enemies or even enemy soldiers. This tightening of tone mainly happened again from 2012, after a first crisis for journalism under the Putin presidency around the year 2006. During the presidency of Medvedev (2008–2012) the climate had improved in the meantime.

The Internet

The Internet was initially considered to be the freest medium in Russia by comparison. However, it was always under state surveillance. The FSB secret service can - without judicial authorization - read all mail traffic in, from and to Russia and track users' Internet activities in real time. The providers had to bear the acquisition costs for the surveillance systems. Bloggers with more than 3000 readers also have to register as “news media”. From 2012, unpopular websites with "inadmissible criticism" were blocked by the authorities, and from 2019 a law on "insulting authorities" came into force, which is suitable for preventing any criticism of the government and for prosecuting it.

The most important information websites in 2006 include (in brackets the percentage of those Russian Internet users who use this site and membership of a media group, if known):

  • gazeta.ru (7.2 Alisher Usmanov)
  • lenta.ru (6.5)
  • og.ru
  • polit.ru (2.4)
  • vesti.ru (part of WGTRK )
  • utro.ru
  • strana.ru (2.8 percent; part of WGTRK)
  • dni.ru (1.9)
  • vz.ru
  • smi.ru (part of WGTRK)
  • inosmi.ru (part of WGTRK)
  • rbth.ru (Russian government agency)
  • business-swiss.ch (Russian-language internet newspaper based in Switzerland)

In the Russian newspaper Vedomosti , which was controlled by US and Finnish media corporations before the law on media property that came into force in 2016, the journalist Ilya Klischin wrote that the Putin government had been relying on systematic manipulation since a wave of protests after the 2011 parliamentary elections public opinion on the internet. The Süddeutsche Zeitung received confirmation of “hordes of paid manipulators” who are active in blogs on the Internet, including 600 employees of the “ Agency for the Analysis of the Internet ” in St. Petersburg.

To circumvent the censorship measures, the former editor-in-chief of Lenta.ru , Galina Timtschenko , founded Meduza, a Russian-language Internet newspaper based in Latvia , which also published English in October 2014 .

Other media were able to establish themselves on the Internet, deliver journalism for paying customers and thus remain independent. These include Fontanka or The Insider (magazine) . The action artist Pyotr Wersilow runs a website on civil rights issues and arbitrariness by the authorities called “Mediazona”. The business portal "The Bell" goes back to, among others, a leading former editor of Vedomosti and RBK and, according to the NZZ, has "made a name" for itself with its business reports. "Riddle" publishes political analyzes by experts in English and Russian. "7x7" has established itself on civil rights in northern Russia in Komi and is nationally respected, as is "Znak.com" from Yekaterinburg. The former site «slon.ru» had been renamed «Republic.ru» after 2017 and did without the latest news. Instead, “Republic” publishes analyzes and comments as well as guest contributions by experts from the fields of science and journalism. The topics are divided into departments (politics, culture, economy, future and technology as well as psychology and health) and each department works on its own account.

News and brief analyzes on the messenger service Telegram became increasingly important around 2018 . The authorities had tried to block the service and the request by the authorities to monitor the Internet increased in January 2019, according to the NZZ. But also the state propaganda shifted to the net, on Youtube channels or on the web offers of the state media and after the unsuccessful blocking attempt also with fake news on Telegram.

In 2019, a law was passed that allows Russian authorities, especially the Roskomnadzor , to block online media if they distribute reports that they believe are not true or "offend" state power, national emblems and Russian society.

From the summer of 2020, according to a law that has not been well thought out according to observers, only internet-enabled devices that have Russian software preinstalled may be sold in Russia. Despite protests in 2019, a conversion of the IT infrastructure in Russia with state-controlled nodes was ordered in November . The global network could thus be restricted or switched off if necessary. Russian Internet service providers must place their servers under the supervision of the Roskomnadzor Authority . The official aim is to protect the Russian network against cyber attacks . Critics fear controls and further restrictions on freedom of expression . In addition to Roskomnadzor, the national secret service FSB should be responsible for controlling the IT infrastructure .

Parties law

In April 2009 a new media law “On the guarantees of equality of the parliamentary parties with regard to the reporting of their activities by the state TV and radio stations” was passed. The law guarantees each parliamentary party an equal share of airtime over their activities on state television and radio channels. The law even prescribes the objectivity of this reporting. Even before this law was passed, during the 2008 presidential election in Russia , all presidential candidates were given the same 21 hours of airtime on the three main state television channels to express their views and debate.

literature

  • Anna Kreisel (2001): Between Information and Power. The Russian media landscape. In: Höhmann, Hans-Hermann; Schröder, Hans-Henning: Russia under new leadership. Politics, economy and society at the beginning of the 21st century. Münster, 241–255.
  • Barbara Oertel: A lot of press - little freedom. Media and power in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. In: Eastern Europe , 1/2003. Pp. 19-32.
  • H. Trepper: Mass Media in Russia (January 1992 - April 1993). Research Center Eastern Europe - Bremen, Working Papers and Materials No. 6, Bremen 1993.
  • E. Geißlinger: Between coup and price increase, Russian media on the way from "old" to "new" journalism. In: Publizistik , H. 3 (September 97), pp. 346-360.
  • Jens Deppe: About freedom of the press and the ban on censorship in the Russian Federation. An investigation into the legal and actual design of the constitutional guarantee of freedom. Dissertation, Univ. Hamburg 2000. ( online version )
  • Juliane Besters-Dilger (1996): The changing Russian press; In: Eastern Europe XLVI, 2, 109–118.
  • Lilja Duskaeva: Jazykovo-stilističeskie izmenenija v sovremennych SMI. In: Kožina, MN [ed.] (2003): Stilističeskij ėnciklopedičeskij slovar 'russkogo jazyka. Moskva, 664-675.
  • Uwe Krüger: Bought press in Russia. Political and economic surreptitious advertising using the example of the media in Rostov-na-Donu. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9679-X
  • Roland Haug : The Kremlin AG. Putin, Russia and the Germans , Hohenheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-89850-153-8

See also

Web links

General

Link collections

facts and figures

Selected individual aspects

swell

  1. ↑ a b Sabine Gladkov: Media Empires in Russia (PDF file; 121 kB) In: Russia analyzes No. 7 of the Eastern Europe Research Center from November 28, 2003
  2. ↑ Denis Wolkow: Private matters instead of politics: Russians have had enough of the world ( memento from March 11, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ), RBTH , January 12, 2015
  3. ↑ The Search for the Lost Empire , SRF Doc , December 21, 2016
  4. ↑ Article Soviet party press in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)http: //vorlage_gse.test/1%3D087186~2a%3DSovjetische%20Parteipresse~2b%3DSovjetische%20Parteipresse
  5. ↑ a b Kuranty, Westovye pisma . In: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона - Enziklopeditscheski slowar Brokgausa i Jefrona . tape 17 [33]: Култагой – Лед. Brockhaus-Efron, Saint Petersburg 1896, p. 62 (Russian, full text [ Wikisource ] PDF ).
  6. ↑ a b c Gaseta . In: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона - Enziklopeditscheski slowar Brokgausa i Jefrona . tape 7 a [14]: Выговский – Гальбан. Brockhaus-Efron, Saint Petersburg 1892, p. 791–808 (Russian, full text [ Wikisource ] PDF newspaper).
  7. ↑ Vsyakaya Vsyachina . In: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона - Enziklopeditscheski slowar Brokgausa i Jefrona . tape 7 [13]: Волапюк – Выговские. Brockhaus-Efron, Saint Petersburg 1892, p. 437–438 (Russian, full text [ Wikisource ] PDF - Anything).
  8. ↑ Гибель советского ТВ (fb2) . lib.rus.ec. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  9. ↑ Anna Amelina: Propaganda or Autonomy ?: Russian television from 1970 to today , Volume 4 by bibliotheca eurasica, transcript Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8394-0483-6 , page 279; Quote also on this page: "The presidential administration does not expect objectivity from the media, but loyalty"
  10. ↑ Natalija Rostowa: “Censorship exists in many media by default” , medium.com, November 21, 2016
  11. ↑ Per-Arne Bodin, Stefan Hedlund, Elena Namli (eds.): Power and Legitimacy: Challenges from Russia , Volume 39 of Routledge contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe series , 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-67776-9 , page 21 , Author Klaus von Beyme
  12. ↑ Russia. 2006 Annual report Reporters Without Borders ( Memento of November 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Mikhail Gorbachev: “You see Russia too one-sided” ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Cicero , April 12, 2008.
  14. ↑ Putin's spokesman on the formation of Rossiya Segodnya: Every state has its own propaganda tool ( Memento from October 21, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ), RIA, December 19, 2013
  15. Jump up ↑ Russian Propaganda - Sending to Conquer the Time, April 28, 2014
  16. ↑ Alexei Eremenko: Weeding Out the Upstarts: The Kremlin's Proxy War on Independent Journalism , Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2015; "it was the only weekly news show to offer a critical outlook"
  17. ↑ Russia How Russia's independent media was dismantled piece by piece , The Guardian, May 25, 2016
  18. ^ "Die Woche": Russian TV stops last independent broadcast , Spiegel Online, August 2, 2014, accessed on August 20, 2014.
  19. ↑ «Вместе с самолетом разбилась последняя программа, которая могла себе позволить разбилась последняя программа, которая могла себе позволить, which crashed, with the plane, the сеять кение-сru August 2014, accessed September 20, 2014.
  20. ↑ Last independent television show canceled in Russia , AFP, August 2, 2014
  21. ↑ The last independent interviewer , Tages-Anzeiger, August 3, 2014
  22. ↑ Nozima Akhrarkhodjaeva: Russian Media and Journalists' Dilemma between “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” , Russia Analysis No. 197, January 23, 2017
  23. ↑ ITAR-TASS: Foreign participation in Russian mass media to be restricted to 20% in 2016 ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ), September 23, 2014
  24. ↑ a b c Democracy Report 2008 by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
  25. ↑ Russia: Freedom of the Press 2016. Freedom House, accessed July 26, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Putin's propaganda war ( memento of October 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Arte , September 18, 2015
  27. ↑ Putin's Propaganda ( Memento from September 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Arte, September 8, 2015, minute 15:15
  28. ^ Annual report 2007 (PDF file; 3.56 MB) of Reporters Without Borders , p. 121
  29. ↑ Tobias Goltz: “Why don't you write what I see?” The Russian journalist Grigori Pasko on the dependency and buyability of the press under Putin. In: Berliner Zeitung . August 20, 2007, accessed June 19, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Greetings from Potemkin , Die Zeit, April 25, 2017, quote: "Media representatives are only allowed to work in the area of ​​the venues and nearby attractions"
  31. ↑ Results with Martin Alekseevich Martin Alekseevich listened to propaganda radio for two years - here are some results , Colta.ru, March 10, 2016
  32. ↑ Nowaja Gazeta receives another warning from the Russian media regulator ( memento of December 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), Eurasiablog.de, July 21, 2015
  33. ↑ Films in Russia: The Fear of Scissors , RBTH, December 18, 2014
  34. ^ A b c Viktor Funk: “I am the news” ( Memento from May 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: Frankfurter Rundschau , April 25, 2014. (Doschd lost a broadcast license and bloggers with more than 3000 readers must be registered as news media.)
  35. ^ Sociology: The Russians are a speechless people , RBTH , October 14, 2014
  36. ↑ Marc Stegherr, Kerstin Liesem: The media in Eastern Europe: Media systems in the transformation process , Springer-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-92487-8 , page 332
  37. ↑ A hybrid hunt for criminal journalists Meduza reviews how federal censors monitor and punish Russia's mass media , meduza, December 13, 2017
  38. ^ "Thirteen Murders No Justice" , Committee to Protect Journalists , query date: January 21, 2008.
  39. ↑ 52 journalists killed in 2000 (worldwide) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  40. ^ "Journalists Killed in Russia 2000-2003" , Prague Watchdog , September 24, 2003.
  41. ^ "New murder of journalists in Russia" , Spiegel Online , May 3, 2002.
  42. ^ "Dangerous Profession" , CJES , query date: January 25, 2009.
  43. ↑ "Iron Curtain Redux" , American Journalism Review , February / March of 2007.
  44. ↑ "Freedom of the Press worldwide in 2007" (PDF file; 3.56 MB), Reporters Without Borders annual report , p. 121.
  45. ↑ "Itar-Tass employee was stabbed to death" (tagesschau.de archive) ( Memento from April 1, 2019 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de , October 18, 2006.
  46. ↑ “Moscow Lintel” , Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 7, 2007.
  47. ↑ "In Russia, crusade at your own risk" , Chicago Tribune , November 23 of 2008.
  48. ^ "Deadly searches" ( Memento from January 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Zapp , December 17, 2008
  49. ↑ "We Come To Kill" on Spiegel Online. Retrieved July 23, 2010
  50. ↑ An overview of the most important social media platforms in Russia ( Memento from February 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Social Media Switzerland
  51. ↑ Social network: Mail.ru takes over VKontakte completely , Spiegel, September 17, 2014
  52. ↑ Information from the Federal Foreign Office
  53. ↑ BBC: Country Profile Russia; Media dated December 3, 2006
  54. ↑ Reach of the TV stations, measured by the comcon company ( memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.comcon-2.ru
  55. ↑ TV uses crash pictures in 'mass grave' reports , BBC, September 30, 2014
  56. ↑ Company shares according to the STS homepage ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ctcmedia.ru
  57. ↑ The TNT on mediaatlas.ru
  58. ↑ Axel Springer Russia: License agreement for NEWSWEEK will not be extended in: Axel Springer AG of October 18, 2010
  59. ^ Sarah Oates, Gillian McCormack: The Media and Political Communication . In: Stephen White (ed.): Developments in Russian Politics , Volume 7. Duke University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-22449-0 .
  60. ^ "Echo Moscow" The last independent radio station in Russia , Berliner Zeitung, December 17, 2014
  61. ↑ Freedom of the media becomes a farce in Russia ( Memento from May 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Wiener Zeitung, May 2, 2016
  62. ^ Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder: The Russian Elections 2007/2008 , Research Center Eastern Europe Bremen, December 2007
  63. ↑ The masks have fallen , arte, August 26, 2015
  64. ↑ Spiegel as we can , Novaya Gazeta, November 11, 2017
  65. ↑ Johannes Vosswinkel: Struggle of Freedom , in: Die Zeit online , March 15, 2007.
  66. ↑ "Direct criticism of the government is now de facto forbidden" , SZ, March 3, 2019
  67. ↑ Information according to Comcom, 3rd quarter 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.comcon-2.ru
  68. ↑ a b c d Pavlovsky Nationalized (Nezavisimaya Gazeta) ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), The Russian Issues online , July 4, 2002. (offline)
  69. ↑ Business life in Switzerland
  70. ↑ Putin's Internet Pirates . NZZ from June 18, 2014, accessed on October 4, 2014.
  71. ↑ Putin's Trolls , SZ from June 13, 2014.
  72. ↑ pro-Russian comments on the Internet - Where the opinion is made . FAZ , June 20, 2014, archived from the original on October 12, 2014 . ;.
  73. ↑ Sabine Adler : Reaction to Russian censorship. An uncomfortable journalist starts again , Deutschlandfunk , October 10, 2014.
  74. ↑ a b c d Russia's amazing media diversity , NZZ, February 2, 2019, page 9
  75. ↑ Telegram- Die (Fake-) News-Fabrik , arte, March 12, 2018
  76. ^ Paul Katzenberger: New Internet law in Russia facilitates censorship. Retrieved April 5, 2020 .
  77. ↑ In Russia, the sale of smartphones and computers without domestic software is banned , Novaya Gazeta, December 2, 2019
  78. ↑ The Russian Internet is to be decoupled from the global network , NZZ, February 12, 2019
  79. ↑ RuNet: Russia wants to separate itself from the global network as a test. In: Spiegel Online . February 12, 2019, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  80. ↑ Thielko Grieß: Russia - Moscow strengthens control over the Internet. In: deutschlandfunk.de. November 1, 2019, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  81. ↑ Russian President Putin creates a "sovereign" Internet. In: dw.com. November 1, 2019, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  82. ↑ dpa / mak: "Runet": "The worst is to be expected" - Russia creates its own "state Internet". In: welt.de . November 1, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  83. ^ Official English legal text
  84. ^ Daniel Treisman: The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev . Free Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4165-6071-5 , p. 350.