Printing lack of freedom

First of all, I want to say that I am proud of my Russian colleagues who went to the Investigative Committee. And I’m sure that the disappointment expressed by many after reconciliation of the head of the Investigative Committee and the editor -in -chief of Novaya Gazeta will be replaced by a sober assessment of how the self -awareness of the Russian journalistic community itself changed.

In order to understand how important this change in moods, let's figure out: what is in Russia now? Free Russian journalism or system controlled by power? Maybe we will tell ourselves honestly: there are no free Russian journalism for several decades in a row. She began to disappear after the appearance on the market of Vladimir Gusinsky and the firing of the White House and finally completed her existence during the re -election of Boris Yeltsin for a second term. All the subsequent was the era of twisting of the nuts, appropriate for the election for the second term by Vladimir Putin. From that moment on, we live as if outside journalism. We only have propaganda - and marginals.

Does this mean that nothing can be said? No, does not mean. In the Yeltsin years, much could be said - but within the framework of the system of relations between the oligarchs. In the Putin era, you can already say less, but the echoes of the truth sometimes break into the air and into newspaper strips. However, telling the truth is half the battle. The matter is to be heard. It is this right that we took away from the 90s. Those who want to write and tell the truth have lost the audience and authority. They were driven into special reservations, which are the media with the same convention with which they were communist newspapers. Yes, perhaps this is the means of information, but certainly not mass. Any escape from the reservation is an escape to nowhere, to the Internet or execution in the entrance.

I want my colleagues to look around. And they realized that almost all of them are inside the system of relations between the authorities and society, which does not allow free press in principle. Yes, in this system there are frank scum that serve power with the excitement of the Masochists - and there are honest people who are trying to do at least something. But in modern Russia there cannot be a democratic newspaper, a democratic radio station, a democratic magazine. Can't, stop deceiving yourself at last! There may be publications that are allowed to seem - or even to be a certain measure - democratic. But their opportunity to be heard will always be limited - a circulation, a distribution area, a false pluralism on the air. And one more thing: there will always be a line through which you cannot cross. Always. And if you lead this publication - and such a project as the "literary newspaper" of the Soviet era, always one or two of the leading for a couple of decades - you will feel this line better than any official. And to understand what can happen to your subordinates who has transgressed this line. What to understand - to know: we all know this. And if the line is crossed? If the line is crossed, you need to do everything to return to the starting positions. All possible!

That is why those who admired Dmitry Muratov on Wednesday, and on Thursday, declared him an adaptive on Wednesday. Well, why? The editor -in -chief of Novaya Gazeta is not a manual or a saint. He would be a saint - it would not be the main one, and there would have been no newspapers. He would be an adaptator-he would have long edited some Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of the best journalists of which he was back in the 80s and 90s. The editor -in -chief of Novaya Gazeta - like the editor -in -chief of Echo of Moscow, for example, is a player. And the chairman of the Investigative Committee, by the way, too. Just officials and journalists play in Russia in different games. It’s just that Muratov and Bastrykin most likely have completely different ideas about what Russia should become as a result of their maneuvering. For some reason, I think that these are generally two completely different countries.

But while they live in one. In one Russia. In one system. Do you want it to be different? Then change this country! Are you already changing her what you are telling people the truth? Then tell the truth to yourself and get ready for a long and protracted struggle for the right to be heard by Russian society.

If this struggle is crowned with success, in the newspaper market of the new Russia, most likely there will be no “Novaya Gazeta”, and dozens of conversational radio stations will appear next to the “echo of Moscow”. So what about that? You will still recall these reservations of freedom and hemisphere with mixed feelings of gratitude and sympathy - as former Soviet people still recall the "literary newspaper" of Chakovsky and "New World" of Twardowski. By the way, Chakovsky and Tvardovsky were much more systemic people than Muratov with Venediktov. But without them it would not be us, understand?

If this struggle is crowned with success, by the way, we will not be in journalism either - we are formed inside this very system, even in confrontation. But it doesn’t matter. After all, we always gratefully recalled those Soviet journalists who tried to tell us the truth, even when this word itself was dismissed.

So we will be remembered.