From Glasnost to the Internet: Russia’s New Infosphere

277 Pages·1999·26.139 MB·English

by  Frank Ellis (auth.)

FROM GLASNOST TO THE INTERNET
Also by Frank Ellis
VASILY GROSSMAN: The Genesis and Evolution of a Russian Heretic
From Glasnost to
the Internet
Russia's New Infosphere
Frank Ellis
Reuter Foundation Lecturer in Russian and
East European Media
University 0/ Leeds
* © Frank Ellis 1999
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1999978-0-333-67095-8
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ISBN 978-1-349-27078-1 ISBN 978-1-349-27076-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27076-7
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Library of Congress Ca ta log Card Number: 98-20783
To the memory of
Viktor Kravchenko (1905-66)
Soviet defector, freedom-fighter and
truth-teller
Contents
Preface IX
Glossary of Soviet and Russian Media Terms xii
Chronology xviii
Part I The Collapse of Soviet Communism 1
1 Information Deficit 3
Some Causes and Symptoms of Collapse 3
The Decisive Impact of Censorship 6
The Problem of Ideology 8
The Effects of Censorship 29
The Economy 29
Science 33
Literature and Language 39
Gorbachev, Glasnost', Collapse 44
Conclusion 52
Part 11 Liberty: The Nurse of All Great Wits 65
2 Mass Media Legislation of the Russian Federation 67
Introduction 67
Towards the 1990 Press Law 68
1992 Mass Media Law (Amendments and
Supplements) 74
Further Primary Legislation Affecting the Mass
Media 77
The Arbitration Information Tribunal 77
The ludicial Chamber for Information Disputes 79
Secrecy Legislation and the Mass Media 83
Law for Reporting the Activities of State Agencies
in the State Media 1994 87
The 1995 Information Law 88
Other Government Agencies and the Media 90
Presidential Press Service 91
Summary 93
Vll
Vlll Contents
3 Russian Journalism's Time of Troubles 95
Introduction 95
A Viable Fourth Estate (?) 96
Crime and the Chechen War 110
Conclusion 120
Part III Shaping the New Infosphere 123
4 A Survey of Russia's Culture and Media Wars 125
5 The Internet in Russia 139
Introduction 139
Bangemann and Gates: Potholes on the Road Ahead 140
The Case Against the Universal Provision of
Electronic Mail 147
Legislation and the Networks 149
The Database Law 150
Roskominform Statute 151
The Communications Law 152
The Information Law 153
The Law of Information Exchange 155
A New Cultural Imperialism? 160
Computer Networks in the Russian Federation 163
Educationa1!Scientific Networks 163
Commercial Providers 165
Summary of Networks and Problems 166
6 Concluding Remarks 171
Appendix: The Law ofthe Russian Federation
Concerning the Mass Media 180
Notes 212
Bibliography 240
Bibliography 0/ Media Legislation of the Russian
Federation 247
Bibliography 0/ Internet Sources 249
Index 251
Preface
When embarking on this book, it was my intention to use media, the
standard term, in the title. The more, however, I pondered the
changes which had taken place since the mid-eighties, and which had
then accelerated after 1991, the greater the inadequacy of the term
media seemed to be. It is, I think, a question of perceptions. For
better or far warse, the term media is overwhelmingly associated with
the print and broadcast media, with their physical, tangible existence.
This association does not, I argue, do justice to some of the profound
changes and shifts taking place not just in the Russian Federation, but
worldwide. The tradition al term media was being overshadowed by
something mare powerful and more comprehensive. That phenome
non I call the infosphere. The change from media to infosphere has
been forced on us by the astonishing advances brought about by
computers and information technology (IT) generally. As configura
tions in products and services available to consumers multiply, so the
legislative background becomes ever more complicated. Such config
urations also imply huge changes in the physical infrastructure.
While 1991 can possibly be regarded as the starting point of this
study, it must, for obvious reasons, take note of the historical legacy
whose malignancies will be feIt for many years to come. Mare than
any other state, Russia's new infosphere is a combination of the old
and the new.
1991 has a double significance for the Russian people. First and
foremost, it is the year of the Great August Liberation, the end of the
Leninist experiment in mass enslavement which was launched with a
coup d'etat in 1917. 1991 also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the
German invasion, and in astrange way these two events - liberation
from Leninist enslavement and the attempt by the Nazis to imposc
another - are related. For Hitler's failure to take the Soviet Union -
and it was there far the taking - stemmed from the overweening belief
in violence accompanied by the will to power. Hitler's empire was
acquired by violence but it could not be sustained by violence. It
lacked any idea that could hold it together outside of war. The Soviet
empire, on the other hand, had what its ideologues believed was the
great idea - socialism - but this, too, could only be sustained by
violence of much greater severity and duration than that of the Nazis.
ix
x Preface
Nor, when it came to the crunch, could violence sustain the Soviet
empire indefinitely. The costs were too high. The Soviet collapse of
1991 was both the recognition that these costs could no longer be
sustained, and the failure of will. Above all, it demonstrated the total
exhaustion of Leninist agitation and propaganda. It was no longer
possible to live on slogans.
The failure of Soviet agitprop highlights the consequences of Soviet
censorship, the latter being a unique institution in human thought, or
rather, anti-thought. Part I of this survey begins with an examination
of the way in wh ich censorship attacked the system it was designed to
protect. Part 11 examines some of the problems now confronting jour
nalists, beginning with media legislation, the impact of crime and the
recent Chechen war. Part III considers the fate of the writer in a
society that has found its own voice and ends with an examination of
so me of the issues raised by Russia's moving into the Global
Information Infrastructure (GII).
This book grew out of a number of lectures on media themes deliv
ered to full-time and retired members of the Reuter News Agency
under the auspices of the Reuter Foundation between 1994 and 1997.
I found the response from these media professionals both stimulating
and demanding. On more occasions than I care to remember I was
hard put to provide answers to some penetrating questions. Those of
us who study the media in academe have much to learn from the
hands-on media professionals. I would especially like to thank the
following members of the Reuter Foundation: Mr Stephen
Somerville for all his help and his cornucopian hospitality; Mr John
Entwisle, the Reuter archivist; and Jo Weir, Irina Taylor and Jane
Collins, the energetic, efficient and dedicated foot-soldiers that made
things happen on time and in good order.
I would also like to thank the following: Mr Jeff Gardner of the
Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) for allowing me unrestricted
access to the archive in Prague, and the help extended to me while in
Prague by the Russian specialists Silja Haas and Elena Corti; Mr
Michael Nelson, formerly of Reuters, for allowing me unrestricted
access to his personal library, for allowing me to copy much of his
archive and finally for giving me a manuscript-copy of his forthcom
ing book, War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western
Broadcasting in the Cold War; Professor Peter Krug for giving me
copies of various articles; Professor Monroe Price of the Benjamin
Cardozo Law School, for giving me a copy of his book, Television, The
Public Sphere, and National Identity (1995); Mr Nicholas Pilugin of the