Bad Old Days for Russia’s Media

It hasn’t always been easy to defend the Russian media. Most outlets are state-owned and docile, and journalists have been known to take money for favorable coverage. Now the emergence of independent television and newspapers that dare to criticize official policy and dig into corruption has alarmed the Kremlin. President Vladimir V. Putin, while saying he supports a free press, is using the dirty tricks of his Soviet predecessors, and some new ones, to muzzle the press. It’s an ominous development in a country where democracy has yet to find a permanent home.

It is no coincidence that the prime targets of Putin’s anti-corruption campaign were media magnates Vladimir A. Gusinsky, the part-owner of the independent NTV television network, and Boris A. Berezovsky, who until recently controlled Russia’s largest TV network, ORT. Gusinsky’s network was scathingly critical of Putin’s war in Chechnya, and ORT supported Putin’s rival in last year’s presidential election. Gusinsky is now under house arrest in Spain under an extradition warrant, and Berezovsky has sold his holdings to another Russian “oligarch,” a friend of Putin. Russian prosecutors are now going after NTV itself, jailing two of its top officials and harassing the editorial staff.

But while diligently investigating alleged financial crimes at NTV, the police have done virtually nothing to solve rising attacks against journalists. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists last year counted 29 cases of intimidation, including murders, kidnappings, beatings and death threats.

Putin, like his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, knows that television can be a powerful weapon in Russia. Both have benefited greatly from having the media on their side. But Yeltsin, for all his faults, also knew that freedom of expression was essential for democracy. Putin, a career operative of the Soviet-era secret service, considers public criticism of the government a form of subversion. His attempt to control the Russian press is malignant.