Russia/Press Freedom

Editorsweblog: How a European editor experiences press freedom in Russia

"The Financial Times interviewed the Dutchmen Derk Sauer, one of the most important publishers in Russia, and asked him about the situation of press freedom in Russia. Derk Sauer is founder and chief executive of the Russian publisher Independent Media, that was bought for $ 172 million by the Finnish media group SanomaWSOY earlier this year."

"Asked for how much press freedom there is in Russia, Sauer, who has been in Moscow for 16 years now, answered: "The Russian authorities have solved the problem quite cleverly, from their perspective. They have said, 'Well, we will control TV, and the newspapers we will leave free.' Independent news on television doesn't exist. But we and some other papers can write anything, because the authorities are very practical ... The funny thing about Russia: there is complete press freedom for the informed, but none for the uninformed. The informed, the people who read Vedomosti or Kommersant and papers like that, know a lot anyway because they also see satellite TV and the internet. There is no point trying to suppress us. It would just create a fuss and international criticism. We are even an alibi for the Russian authorities. Recently Walter Mondale, the American politician, was in Moscow, and he read the Moscow Times and said: 'Gosh, what press freedom!'"

"But the press also seems to have no impact. Sauer said, "In Russia, the effect of what you publish is different from in the west: nothing happens. The role of the press only works if it is followed up. But we reveal something every week: that someone is corrupt, that the justice system has made a mistake, we reveal the craziest things. And nothing happens. Deathly silence. It is revealed that the ballot boxes were rigged in the elections. People just say, 'So you thought the elections weren't fixed?'"