Media freedom in Russia


The current government of Russia maintains laws and practices that make it difficult for directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies. These laws and practices also hinder the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media inside Russia includes television and radio channels, periodicals, and Internet media, which according to the laws of the Russian Federation may be either state or private property.
, Russia ranked 164 out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Despite the constitution's provision of freedom of speech, the authorities possess significant discretion to suppress any speech, organization, or activity lacking official support due to ambiguous extremism laws. The government dominates the media landscape by controlling the majority of the national television networks, radio and print outlets, and media advertising market, either directly or through state-owned enterprises and friendly business magnates.
Multiple international organizations have criticized and continue to criticize various aspects of the contemporary press-freedom situation in Russia. The Russian government engages in internet censorship.

History

Legislative framework

The Russian constitution provides for freedom of speech and press; however, government application of law, bureaucratic regulation, and politically motivated criminal investigations have forced the press to exercise self-censorship constraining its coverage of certain controversial issues, resulting in infringements of these rights. According to Human Rights Watch, the Russian government exerts control over civil society through selective implementation of the law, restriction, and censure.

Commissioner for Human Rights (ombudsman)

Russia's ombudsman, named officially the Commissioner for Human Rights, is appointed for a certain term by the Parliament. The ombudsman cannot be dismissed before the end of his term, and is not subordinate to any body of power, including the president or the government. Russia's 83 administrative regions have the right to elect a local ombudsman whose authority is limited to that region. Less than half have done so.
Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin reported in 2006 that claims declaring that freedom of speech is non-existent in Russia would be an exaggeration, the constitutional right for speech freedom is basically observed, and there is no institutionalized censorship. Because the ombudsman has refused to acknowledge the barriers to free speech, journalists and publishers seldom appeal to the commissioner to protest restrictions of their right of seeking, receiving, transferring, publishing or distributing information. Disguised restrictions also exist to a considerable degree, mostly in the form of economic pressure on mass media by the authorities and loyal business. The so-called "self-censorship" which induces journalists to refrain from disseminating information which, in their opinion, may not please the authorities, is also widespread. In many places, the right to praise the authorities is ensured, while criticism is silenced.
In his 2008 annual report, Vladimir Lukin wrote that it is important to have a comprehensive legal interpretation of terms that may limit the freedom of thought and word. He spoke against the election legislation amendment, calling it "a practical prohibition" of contesting candidates' criticism and "obviously excessive." Lukin further criticized the Law on combating extremist activities, noting that extremism and dissent must be strictly legally divided and are not defined in the law.

Attacks and threats against journalists

The dangers to journalists in Russia have been well known since the early 1990s but concern at the number of unsolved killings soared after Anna Politkovskaya's murder in Moscow on 7 October 2006. While international monitors spoke of several dozen deaths, some sources within Russia talked of over two hundred fatalities.
Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty in Russia is observed on 15 December every year.

Assaults on journalists

Since the early 1990s, a number of Russian reporters who have covered the situation in Chechnya, contentious stories on organized crime, state and administrative officials, and large businesses have been killed. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since 1992, 50 journalists have been murdered for their professional activity in Russia : 30 journalists from 1993 to 2000, and 20 journalists since 2000.
According to Glasnost Defence Foundation, there were 9 cases of suspicious deaths of journalists in 2006, as well as 59 assaults on journalists, and 12 attacks on editorial offices. In 2005, the list of all cases included 7 deaths, 63 assaults, 12 attacks on editorial offices, 23 incidents of censorship, 42 criminal prosecutions, 11 illegal layoffs, 47 cases of detention by militsiya, 382 lawsuits, 233 cases of obstruction, 23 closings of editorial offices, 10 evictions, 28 confiscations of printed production, 23 cases of stopping broadcasting, 38 refusals to distribute or print production, 25 acts of intimidation, and 344 other violations of Russian journalist rights.
On 7 October 2006, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, known for her criticisms of Russia's actions in Chechnya and the pro-Russia Chechen government, was shot in the lobby of her apartment building. The death of Politkovskaya triggered an outcry of criticism of Russia in the Western media, with accusations that, at best, Vladimir Putin has failed to protect the country's new independent media.
International Press Institute reports selective use of regulations, politically motivated criminal investigations, journalist imprisonments, outlet shutdowns and aggressive harassments by security services. According to the organization, Russia remains the most dangerous European country for journalists, with four killed in 2009.
Amnesty International reported in 2009, that "Human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers who spoke openly about human rights abuses faced threats and intimidation. The police appeared to be reluctant to investigate such threats and a climate of impunity for attacks on civil society activists prevailed." Amnesty International reported also a "climate of growing intolerance towards independent views". According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Russia is a more dangerous place now than it was during the Cold War. Only Iraq and Algeria outrank it on the list of most life-threatening countries for the press.
In October 2016, a group of Chechen journalists published an anonymous, dramatic appeal in The Guardian describing the intimidation and physical attacks they are experiencing under the Ramzan Kadyrov government and complete control the officials are enforcing over the media organisations in the republic.
The Human Rights Committee of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned about the contemporary situation in Russia.
at the alarming incidence of threats, violent assaults and murders of journalists and human rights defenders, which has created a climate of fear and a chilling effect on the media, including for those working in the North Caucasus, and regrets the lack of effective measures taken to protect the right to life and security of these persons.

  • In August 2014 the Pskov-based publisher Lev Shlosberg, member of the opposition Yabloko party, suffered a serious attack that left him unconscious. He claims the attack was related to his paper's investigations on the deployment of Russian soldiers from Pskov to Ukraine.
  • In August 2014 the investigative reporter Aleksandr Krutov was attacked and beaten in Saratov - the fourth time in his 20-year career in covering crime for a local publication.
  • In September 2014 a TV crew reporting on fraud was attacked in Novosibirsk. Their equipment was destroyed and the videographer was injured.
  • In December 2014, in Novosibirsk, the editor in chief of taiga.info was beaten by two men in the website premises.
  • On 30 July 2018, Orkhan Dzhemal, was killed along with film director Alexander Rastorguev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic while filming a documentary about the activities of illegal Russian military formations in the CAR.
  • In June 2019, investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested and allegedly beaten in custody
  • In 2021, Roman Dobrokhotov left Russia after he was placed on "wanted" list by FSB for alleged "illegal crossing of border."

    Denial of entry and deportation of foreign journalists

  • In February 2011, Guardian journalist Luke Harding, from Britain, was refused entry into Russia, contrary to OCSE regulations. He became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War. Some linked his expulsion with unflattering coverage of Russia, including speculation about Vladimir Putin's wealth. On 9 February Russia reversed the decision.
  • In July 2014, the Ukrainian journalist Yevgeniy Agarkov was arrested in Voronezh while reporting on the trial of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. He was charged with missing proper accreditation, and was convicted, deported and banned for five years.
  • In September 2014, a BBC team was attacked in Astrakhan while investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine - at the time still denied by the Kremlin. They had their equipment destroyed.
  • In 2015, an Australian journalist, Helen Womack, who spent over 30 years reporting from Russia was denied accreditation after listing on a nationalist-operated "list of enemies of Russia" website and forced to leave the country.
  • Also in 2015, following the documentary on Russian soldiers serving in the war in Donbas, Simon Ostrovsky was denied accreditation to Russia.
  • Wacław Radziwinowicz was expelled in December 2015.
  • Thomas Nilsen, Editor of The Barents Observer, was declared persona non grata in November 2016.
  • Sarah Rainsford was banned from working in Russia in August 2021.
  • Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia on March 29, 2023 by the FSB on charges of espionage. He is the first American journalist to be detained in Russia since the Cold War.