Whilst the West seeks to somehow "deal" with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, or at least come to some sort of accomodation with him, it is obvious that the man can't get away from his days as boss of the KGB. The actions of Putin, and his henchmen, are so very reminiscent of the dark days of the Soviet Union.
We all know about the deaths of well-known journalists - all, seemingly, on the cusp of publishing something which would certainly not find favor with the Soviet government. Under the title "Putin Strikes Again" The New York Review of Books reflects on Putin and his actions.
"Russian journalists have suffered crippling attacks in recent years, as Vladimir Putin pursues his policy of strengthening the "vertical" dimension of his administration's "power pyramid." The Kremlin's geometrical terminology means enforcing, from the top down, an ideology intended to align all sectors of Russia's "managed democracy" (another key phrase of the Putin era) into tidy, clearly demarcated, easily controlled zones of activity and influence. No strong minority views, no awkward revelations in the press are to mar the sleek façades of the state. The messy disarray normally associated with functioning democracy—the irritating criticism, noisy opposition, and inconvenient news uncovered by investigative reporters (what Russians proudly called glasnost a mere seventeen years ago)—has been summarily and sometimes harshly dealt with.
The techniques range from mild bureaucratic harassment of news organizations to physical attacks on individual journalists. The body count among Russian reporters is now thirteen murders in the line of duty since Putin has been in power. In each case the reporter was investigating or had published stories critical of government or business officials. No one has been convicted of these killings, even in the rare instances when the police have apprehended suspects. The murder last October of the brave, rash Anna Politkovskaya, about whom Robert Cottrell wrote eloquently in these pages recently,[1] got worldwide attention but others are little known abroad. The Committee to Protect Journalists found in 2006 that Russia was the third most deadly country in the world for reporters.[2]
Murdering journalists is simply the most visible manifestation of the constan campaign against the press. Far more effective are the economic, judicial, an administrative measures being used systematically to quash human rights an information-gathering organizations and other genuinely independent members of civi society. Frequent tax audits and expensive, time-consuming re-registration procedure have been among the weapons of choice. In recent months there have been raids o news organizations to confiscate "illegal software"; shuffles of top-level managemen between government-controlled and "private" national television stations that provid most Russians with their news; managerial directives to present 50 percent "positive news; "stop lists" of politicians and activists not to be mentioned on the air; and an en to live, on-the-scene reporting and live talk shows [3] Local television and radio stations are especially vulnerable to ad hoc attacks—e.g., the regional governor or big-city mayor who tells companies not to advertise on "disloyal" TV stations, the municipal authorities who suddenly discover problems with a lease, or violations of fire or sanitation codes."
We all know about the deaths of well-known journalists - all, seemingly, on the cusp of publishing something which would certainly not find favor with the Soviet government. Under the title "Putin Strikes Again" The New York Review of Books reflects on Putin and his actions.
"Russian journalists have suffered crippling attacks in recent years, as Vladimir Putin pursues his policy of strengthening the "vertical" dimension of his administration's "power pyramid." The Kremlin's geometrical terminology means enforcing, from the top down, an ideology intended to align all sectors of Russia's "managed democracy" (another key phrase of the Putin era) into tidy, clearly demarcated, easily controlled zones of activity and influence. No strong minority views, no awkward revelations in the press are to mar the sleek façades of the state. The messy disarray normally associated with functioning democracy—the irritating criticism, noisy opposition, and inconvenient news uncovered by investigative reporters (what Russians proudly called glasnost a mere seventeen years ago)—has been summarily and sometimes harshly dealt with.
The techniques range from mild bureaucratic harassment of news organizations to physical attacks on individual journalists. The body count among Russian reporters is now thirteen murders in the line of duty since Putin has been in power. In each case the reporter was investigating or had published stories critical of government or business officials. No one has been convicted of these killings, even in the rare instances when the police have apprehended suspects. The murder last October of the brave, rash Anna Politkovskaya, about whom Robert Cottrell wrote eloquently in these pages recently,[1] got worldwide attention but others are little known abroad. The Committee to Protect Journalists found in 2006 that Russia was the third most deadly country in the world for reporters.[2]
Murdering journalists is simply the most visible manifestation of the constan campaign against the press. Far more effective are the economic, judicial, an administrative measures being used systematically to quash human rights an information-gathering organizations and other genuinely independent members of civi society. Frequent tax audits and expensive, time-consuming re-registration procedure have been among the weapons of choice. In recent months there have been raids o news organizations to confiscate "illegal software"; shuffles of top-level managemen between government-controlled and "private" national television stations that provid most Russians with their news; managerial directives to present 50 percent "positive news; "stop lists" of politicians and activists not to be mentioned on the air; and an en to live, on-the-scene reporting and live talk shows [3] Local television and radio stations are especially vulnerable to ad hoc attacks—e.g., the regional governor or big-city mayor who tells companies not to advertise on "disloyal" TV stations, the municipal authorities who suddenly discover problems with a lease, or violations of fire or sanitation codes."
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