Journalists, at the headquarters

To maintain freedom of speech, media professional must participate in politics

In general, it was never easy for reporters in post-Soviet Russia. Even at a time when the press was seriously called the fourth power, it was one of the most dangerous professions. Was and remains. Now, fortunately, journalists have stopped killing. But now they are planted.

Over the past couple of weeks alone, the Pskov journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva has been convicted of “justification of terrorism”, arrested on charges of “Gosizmen” Ivan Safronov, searches for the publisher of the Mediazone Peter Verzilov, in the offices of Open Russia and MBH Media. All this is not counting the countless detentions of participants in the shares of solidarity with them.

Obviously, we are dealing with a focused state attack of the state on the media and freedom of speech as such. And now the threat of the disappearance of the remaining free media in Russia does not seem to be an exaggerated.

Ten years ago in a journalistic environment there was a certain disgust to direct participation in socio-political life. It was believed that the ethical task of the journalist is to tell society the truth (which, however, everyone has their own), ask uncomfortable issues of the authorities, if possible to remain on the fight, no matter what views you personally adhere to.

But definitely not to stand in the pickets and do not climb under the batons at rallies.

Since then, the authorities with the “Comrade Major” have hard to work hard so that the journalists would literally become an advanced detachment of the protesting public. Closely introducing censorship, plugging his mouths, forcing to defend himself.

The figure of a journalist standing in a picket on Lubyanka will certainly become one of the symbols of Russia in the early 2020s.

The workshop solidarity and civic activism of journalists is a thing, of course, correct and useful. However, the big question is whether this is enough to protect yourself and your right to a profession. Having beaten off the world of Ivan Golunov, a year later, Russian media received a stack of new criminal volumes. While a group of enthusiasts beats for one colleague, ten or twenty can easily be in a pre -trial detention center - and as much as you like! - others.

Journalists now do not deal with the arbitrariness of specific investigators or judges, not with individual "plots." This is a political conflict with the authorities, and his decision can only be political.

In my opinion, the media now has no other choice but to openly participate in politics. The neutrality of independent media is possible and is needed in conditions of efficient democratic institutions, where there are equal opportunities for different points of view. When in state media, propaganda is dominant, the task of independent journalism is to provide the site with alternative opinions, to give the floor to opposition politicians.

Today, the media must be achieved in power - in particular, in parliament.

Directly support the forces that express their professional interests. If today the Yabloko faction was in the State Duma, the heads of law enforcement agencies would have to hold a public answer about all these arrests and searches.

Journalists need to stop being shy about coming to the existing opposition political structures, in spite of any taboos ( in some editions, as you know, there is a ban on parties in parties ). It is impossible to stay “over the fight” if the war was declared to you yourself.

The time will come, and it will be possible to return to the standards of noble neutrality. When there will be honest competition on the federal channels, when the country will have an independent court and the real separation of powers. When the state will respect the right to an alternative.

And now it is a matter of survival for the media.

However, even more important today is the solidarity of society, its willingness to protect free media. In the history of our country, the journalist many times became a special public figure. The last such episode, obviously, is associated with the period of the defeat of NTV, when a significant part of our fellow citizens sincerely sympathized with his team. I myself, in April 2001, organized a rally on Troitskaya Square of St. Petersburg in defense of the NTV team, in defense of our right to information diversity.

Then there were almost two decades of intentional cultivation of political indifference and agreement. The consumer basket of the 2000-2010s did not include alternative assessments of what was happening. Journalism and journalists, of course, lost weight. But times are changing.

In the country, if not a boom, then a noticeable increase in interest in investigative journalism, political satire, and all kinds of analytical content.

So, a request for reflection and an alternative returns.

Particularly banal, freedom of speech is not abstract value and not luxury, but the basic need for any successful society and the state. Each of us is objectively interested in the existence of independent media that perform the functions of controllers and authorities. The life of each of us depends on their presence - observance of our rights, our well -being, our security.

And therefore, taking the side of journalists today, you protect yourself and the future of the country.

The editors may not share the author's opinion