Online NewsHour: Muzzling the Media? -- June 16, 2000



	MUZZLING THE MEDIA?
June 16, 2000

After a background report, experts discuss the controversy of the arrest of Russian media baron Vladimir Gusinsky, who many say was apprehended to silence his company's critical news reports of the Kremlin.

The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

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KWAME HOLMAN: Vladimir Gusinsky, one of Russia's most influential media tycoons, was arrested by agents of the Russian government Tuesday and taken to Moscow's notorious Butyrskaya Prison. At the time, he was not told why he was being held. Today, Gusinsky was formally charged with embezzlement and this evening he was released upon signing a pledge not to leave the country. The arrest came just weeks after the offices of Gusinsky's principle holding, Media Most, were raided by masked government agents searching for evidence of various crimes. International reaction to this week's arrest was swift.

JOE LOCKHART, White House Press Secretary: We do have a concern about press freedom in Russia, and that concern was expressed directly to President Putin in his meeting with President Clinton. We're going to want to take a look at this and understand the details, but we are quite concerned about some of the steps that have been taken against a free media.

KWAME HOLMAN: Gusinsky and his various media outlets, which include television, radio, newspapers and magazines, have all been outspoken in their criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- particularly his prosecution of the war in Chechnya. A popular puppet show on Gusinsky's NTV mocks Putin's leadership. Gusinsky's lawyer and other critics charge the arrest shows the anti-democratic nature of Putin's two-month old presidency.

GENRY REZNIK, lawyer for Vladimir Gusinsky: (speaking through interpreter): I can say quite frankly and firmly that on one of the levels of work of our security forces a police regime is being formed or has been formed already.

President Putin denies illegality

KWAME HOLMAN: President Putin, who has been abroad this week in Spain and Germany, found questions about the arrest overshadowing his diplomatic efforts to expand Russian economic ties with Western Europe. He initially denied any involvement in the decision to arrest Gusinsky and yesterday, in Berlin, criticized the arrest as "excessive."

Putin's denial caused former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and others in Russia to speculate that Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, had ordered the arrest behind the president's back -- an ominous sign says Gorbachev.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, Former Leader of USSR (speaking through interpreter): I can tell you this is the worst kind of situation. It's better if you've made a mistake to correct it. But if some kind of forces start acting behind your back, and the president knows that, then that is an alarming situation.

KWAME HOLMAN: Today, President Putin repeated his criticism of the arrest saying: "I don't think the prosecutors should necessarily have used such a measure as arrest. But I don't have reason to believe that they broke the law." Putin also speculated that Gusinksy may be eligible for amnesty as a recipient of a state medal, an honor he received during the Soviet era.

Who ordered the arrest?

MARGARET WARNER: For more on this arrest -- and what it says about the new Russian president -- we turn to Michael McFaul, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and assistant political Science professor at Stanford University. He travels frequently to Russia; Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center and author of After the Collapse: Russia Seeks its Place as a Great Power. He was born in Russia and is now a U.S. citizen. And Ellen Mickiewicz, director of the Dewitt Wallace Center for Communications & Journalism at Duke, and author of Changing Channels -- Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia. Welcome all of you.

Michael McFaul, what do you make of all these twists and turns in this case? How do you explain what's going on?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Well, the day Mr. Gusinsky was arrested I think was one of the darkest moments for Russian democracy that I can remember in several years. It meant that state was intervening against society, and against independent media to achieve political ends. It also meant, secondly, a very ominous time that Mr. Putin it appears was not in charge in the Kremlin. But then there's a third message here. Civil society rallied to his cause, the other oligarchs, the so-called oligarchs rallied to his cause, and the Western international community rallied to his cause. It means that democracy is not over in Russia. I score this one -- one side for the authoritarians and one side for the democrats.

MARGARET WARNER: Ellen Mickiewicz, tell us more about Gusinsky. Do you regard him as a great champion of the independent press?

ELLEN MICKIEWICZ: Yes. Gusinsky is no Boy Scout. Nobody who is a major businessman in Russia has achieved that position very easily. It's an area that is shot through with corruption and illegality. So that's simply to be understood. It's a nasty business. But what Gusinsky has done is to create for Russia and for almost the whole country an alternative, commercially-based media system that has outstanding news gathering and news production record -- one that has won really the credibility among Russian viewers. And that is a very, very important, because it's the only nationally powerful counter weight to state sources of information. I think that is an extraordinary kind of achievement and one that makes you wonder why Gusinsky -- who is not one of the biggest of oligarchs, was chosen.

MARGARET WARNER: So, Dmitri Simes, is this what Vladimir Putin found threatening - that he had this independent media voice - a very powerful one, criticizing him?

DIMITRI SIMES: I'm sure that that was a factor. I also have to say that Vladimir Gusinsky is not Andrei Sakarov.

MARGARET WARNER: He is not Andrei Sakarov, no.

Corruption, business and democracy

DIMITRI SIMES: He's closer to Mayor Lansky than to a real democrat. He has a very vicious security service led by senior KGB generals who came from the political side of the KGB. He used his media ruthlessly to promote his business and political objectives. He attacked his critics on many occasions. And I have a mixed feeling about his arrest. He was singled out because of his free media connection. But I also think that he rather seized the media tycoon... and we should put this arrest in perspective and we should carefully examine charges against him before dismissing them prematurely.
MARGARET WARNER: All right. Where do you come down on this difference here?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Well, I agree, Mr. Gusinsky is no boy scout, and none of the oligarchs are. The charges however that were brought against him, to the best of my knowledge, as I understand them, and there's a lot of - we haven't seen the facts just yet -- by those same standards, every single businessman in Russia and every single oligarch also has to go to jail. People got oil companies in Russia for a song -- people that are close to Mr. Putin now. So what troubles me is not that they're cracking down on having a rule of lost state but that rule of lost state means equal law for everyone, not just for your critics.

DIMITRI SIMES: You have to start somewhere, and you cannot go everywhere, and it just is a fact of life like with American military intervention - you cannot go everywhere -- but it doesn't mean you should not try to do what is right.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me get Ellen in here.

DIMITRI SIMES: We want to have a level playing field.

MARGARET WARNER: Just a minute, Ellen, I'll go right back to you.

DIMITRI SIMES: We cannot have level playing field in Russia as long as oligarchs are in power.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Ellen Mickiewicz.

ELLEN MICKIEWICZ: Let me just add that this is not an isolated issue with respect to freedom of the press. There has been a very disquieting statement on the part of the minister of the press that newspapers will have to be licensed. This is clearly a cloud on the horizon, and there are other aspects too. There are possibilities of yanking licenses of television stations because of warnings. The warnings are very vaguely defined. So I would say that we are really talking about an attitude toward the press in general that actually views press as either "with us" or "against us." And I think this is not the best way to approach press freedom. The government people have said that NTV, the commercial television station of Gusinsky's, has attacked the government or is oppositionist. Well, that's what the press is supposed to do. And that is a principle that has not been accepted.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. So Michael McFaul, what does this whole incident tell us about Vladimir Putin and how he's going to exercise power?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Well, we don't know exactly who ordered the arrest when. There are two scenarios: Either he was behind it all and then walked away from it, or he wasn't and now has to clean it up. Either scenario though I think is a bad mark for Mr. Putin. It shows either that he does not respect the rule of law, and Dmitri, if I believe he really did respect that rule of law and he had credentials on that, I might think there's a good first step. But let's not forget that Babitsky, Chechnya, many other leaders who have been harassed. His credentials aren't very strong on the rule of law.

MARGARET WARNER: But what about Simes' point that also the West has been asking him to crack down on the corrupt oligarchs?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Well, I really believe that that's what he was doing and that -- that was what this was about, and he wanted to be credible, he needs to crack down on those that are his allies, because we know that there are people close to the Kremlin who have broken the same laws. One other thing, though. I think it shows his inexperience with these things. I think we have to remember this guy is new to this game, he's not quite figuring it out, he was terribly embarrassed when he was in Europe. This is not a guy fully in control of his administration.

DIMITRI SIMES: I completely agree with Michael. The problem is that it was a selective negotiation of justice for political reasons -- that Putin has a very bad record as far as freedom of the press is concerned. And accordingly, when he moved against Gusinsky, he had no credibility whatsoever. I hope, however, he would not learn the wrong lesson. Maybe is it now the oligarch who'd enjoyed immunity.

MARGARET WARNER: I'm sorry, say that again.

DIMITRI SIMES: I hope Putin will not learn the wrong lesson that namely the oligarchs now should enjoy political immunity --

MARGARET WARNER: You mean because of the outcry?

DIMITRI SIMES: Because of the outcry and because he was forced to retreat.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Ellen Mickiewicz, what impact do you think all of this is going to have now on the media in Russia and on Gusinsky? I mean, he's free today but he's under essentially Moscow arrest; he's not allowed to leave the country.

Solidarity among journalists

ELLEN MICKIEWICZ: Right, he's released on his own recognizance, essentially, and there are plans to interrogate other people in his company -- Malechenko -- Dubrojayev, who used to be head of the company is going to be interrogated -- at least that's the plan. It seems to me that one benefit of this issue has been brought up is in fact the solidarity that has taken place among journalists who are speaking out. Even the figure of Sergei Derenko, who has been --
MARGARET WARNER: Explain who he is.

ELLEN MICKIEWICZ: He's a vicious journalist attacking government opponents for Channel One, which is associated with Boris Birizhovsky, who is Gusinsky's opponent. Even that journalist has spoken out against this arrest, surprisingly. So one benefit is really to mobilize the community -- and that's good, because they will keep close tabs on what's happening. Mobilizing the international communities is important, but I think not as important as what happens inside the country. And that's a different atmosphere that Putin will face. I think that's very important. I do not think that Gusinsky's properties, media properties, are going to moderate their message out of fear. I think not at all. I don't think that's going to happen.

MARGARET WARNER: Dimitri Simes, what do you think is the likely impact, not only on media and Gusinsky, but on the business establishment in Russia and on Putin?

DIMITRI SIMES: I think, first, Putin has suffered a very considerable political setback. Second, he looks incompetent; he moved at first against regionally - now almost immediately he moved against oligarchs - that was too much -- he was defeated. I hope he will stay on course in terms of trying to consolidate his powers and establish the rule of law. But I completely again agree with Ellen and Michael. He's not a champion of free speech. His instinct is to be authoritarian whenever possible and to be a democrat only when absolutely necessary.

MARGARET WARNER: Michael McFaul, he has seemed to lead a charmed life politically. Do you think this is the first serious misstep?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Well, there's been a few other missteps, but this is a big one. And we haven't heard the end of it yet. After all, Mr. Gusinsky's just been released, but now let's see if the rule of law takes place, and let's see what happens before his next meeting with the G7 in Japan next month. He had expected this to be a kind of coronation on now joining the team. Now there's a lot more uncertainty about that.

MARGARET WARNER: Briefly, what impact do you think it's going to have on his media and on the business community, that whole balance of power in Russia?

MICHAEL McFAUL: Just doesn't get it. The irony was he sat before investors in Spain saying, "Come invest your money in my country." On the same day, he was arresting not just a media mogul, but a businessman. There's a relationship between the rule of law and democracy, the rule of law and the economy. There's a relationship between democracy and capitalism. And so far, in my opinion, he just doesn't get it. If he doesn't, it's going to be bad for Russia.

MARGARET WARNER: Thank you all three very much.