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Less than two weeks before Russia's parliamentary elections on December 17, one of the country's best-known journalists came to New York to receive an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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NTV anchorman Yevgeny Kiselyov, 39, began his journalistic career in 1984 with Radio Moscow's Persian Service and went on to television reporting for Ostankino, then anchor duties at Russian Television. In 1993 he created "Itogi," a Sunday week-in-review program, and brought the show with him to NTV - an independent television station backed by controversial financier Vladimir Gusinsky. Kiselyov is vice president of the company.
In an interview just hours before the award ceremony, Kiselyov discussed the election, Chechnya and the state of Russian news media.
Question: How do you see the upcoming parliamentary election shaping up, and what will it mean for the way the news media do their work?
Kiselyov: Let us wait and see.... Of course, the Communists are leading in the polls. They have very good figures coming every week from the pollsters. But at the same time I tend to be rather skeptical about all those polls, because Russia is different from the United States, from Western Europe: Sometimes the margin of error is much wider than any polls carried out in the West, because on the average, Russian citizens tend to be uncooperative with pollsters. Well, to put it in a straight way, they lie to the pollsters when they are asked their preferences in the upcoming elections.
You may remember that during the 1993 election, even during the exit polls people were giving wrong answers. Even by midnight, polling services were getting wrong figures....
We can be sure about a number of parties and blocs that are going to overcome the 5 percent area. The Communists, (reformist economist Grigory) Yavlinsky's party, (Prime Minister Viktor) Chernomyrdin's Our Home Is Russia, a number of others, maybe eight to 10 of them. We may await some surprises. Maybe somebody is going to make a sudden breakthrough.... I've heard from a number of people that those who would vote for (ultranationalist Vladimir) Zhirinovsky two years ago, now they're saying, ``Well, we're going to teach those guys in the government a lesson and vote for the Party of Beer Lovers'' ....
It may be a possibility that a coalition of Communists and a number of left-wing parties such as the Agrarian Party - which is a sister party to the Communists - plus maybe a number of nationalists would form a majority in the Parliament. But everything depends on how well Chernomyrdin's party, Our Home Is Russia, does in the election. If they get a meaningful portion of the popular vote, then even if they're a minority they may stay in power, and Yeltsin as president would not feel obliged to change the government, politically.
Constitutionally, he's not obliged to take any steps in that direction, even if the Communists have an absolute majority. Our constitution does not make any direct linkage between the outcome of the election and the formation of the government that emerges. Politically, if Chernomyrdin loses, then Yeltsin will think of a new premier, but again he will be looking for a compromise candidate - someone who will be acceptable to the Communists and the reformists, somewhere in between.
And actually it's the presidential election (next June) that is the most important....
Q: Do you think the results of the parliamentary election will change the way the Russian media do their business?
A: Well, I think we are going to do our business as usual. The presidential election will be the next hot issue, and all the parties will be trying to romance the press, no matter who wins or loses the (parliamentary) election.... That's why I think that even in case somebody is thinking of a new policy, maybe a tougher policy tightening the screws, he will wait until the summer.
Q: I've heard that the Communists were thinking of pointing to some instances of parties buying off the press and using that as an excuse for a crackdown on the news media....
A: No, I don't think that any of the leading parties are going to take any crucial steps against the media, because all of them aware of the fact that they will need the media.
I don't think that they will ever dare to make any of the media their foes - in this pre-election situation. One election will slowly grow into another. One election campaign will flow further into another one.
Q: But next spring things might be different?
A: The situation in Russia is quite unpredictable, even for me, and I'm monitoring this situation very closely. It is very difficult for me to make any political forecasts.
Q: Then there's the question of pressure on the media from businessmen in Russia. I'm thinking of the case of (TV personality Vladislav) Listyev's murder back in March. It sounded as if that had to do with the whole advertising situation and who is in control of the money that's associated with the media. How do you see that situation developing? Have things settled down, or is there still a lot of concern among journalists on that score?
A: You know, I don't think it would be right for me to comment or speculate on Listyev's murder, because I'm convinced that it is not right come to any conclusions about that particular case. It was a tragedy. And he was a journalist loved and admired by a majority of viewers. He was maybe the most popular television person in our country. But we don't have any reliable information about the reasons why he was murdered, who was behind the murder, who was behind the contract killers - or killer. We don't even know, was there one man who killed him, or two persons? There are many theories and much contradictory information, never confirmed by the police and the investigative department.
I've heard from people who knew Listyev better than I did that it could be anything. Nobody knows: Did his murder have something to do with his journalistic activities, or with his business activities, or the reforming of the former Ostankino television? Nobody knows. So I would strongly advise anybody against looking upon Listyev's murder in the context of, well, changes taking place in the Russian media market.
That's on the one hand. On the other hand, I do agree that this market is rapidly changing and that there are different groups of interest that are the major players in this market. I am looking upon the whole situation in a very calm way because I think that it's a natural thing. As recently as the beginning of 1991, we used to have only one television network, Gosteleradio, which was controlling all the channels and had only one news service. And then like the former Soviet Union disintegrated, this huge television monolith started to disintegrate, and later part of it in a quite natural way got into the process of privatization or semiprivatization. The process is going on, and I think it can be managed in a civilized way, not necessarily in the framework of a pre-election campaign.
Q: Does it seem as if ORT, Public Russian Television (the successor to Gosteleradio and Ostankino), has achieved the type of organization that it will be for the next few years? Or do you expect further changes?
A: Frankly speaking, I am not an expert in what is happening inside ORT. As a professional and as a viewer, I can say that they are doing much better since they started really changing their programming policies in the fall of 1995. They've thrown out a lot of trash, a lot of second-rate and third-rate programming that used to inhabit the 1st Channel. And they are doing much better in the news. They have some very good entertainment shows.
Well, of course they are very strong competitors for NTV, my company. And in terms of the audience and the coverage of the territory of the former Soviet Union they are way ahead of us. So I am optimistic about the whole situation. And if the competition continues in a civilized way, I have nothing against them becoming stronger, because this will make us to improve, to find new ways of getting bigger audiences, higher ratings, etc.
Q: What sorts of changes might be in the works for NTV? You mentioned the issue of territorial coverage; are there any plans to extend the territory that's covered, or enter into joint ventures with other independent television stations or networks?
A: Well, we are working on that. I'm not in a position to disclose the negotiations that we are carrying out with a number of potential partners and investors. But everything is possible, we are open to any kind of such contacts.
Q: Since you're here to receive an award for press freedom, I wanted to talk about the sorts of personal obstacles, hardships or challenges that you face. During the Chechen operation there has been a lot of pressure on NTV in terms of its reporting, and I think it's widely known how you and the other people from NTV have been able to resist, for the large part, that pressure. Is that continuing?
A: No, it's not continuing. I'm happy to say that it's now old water under the bridge, so to say.
We resisted the pressures, we worked out a comprehensive scheme of dealing with the authorities, of convincing them that an independent television station should work the way it feels it ought to work. Well, we have a lot of difficulties, and who hasn't? But the worst time is over.
Personally, I cannot compare the difficulties that I had with the risks my colleagues were taking - those who were working directly inside Chechnya, reporting from the front lines of that war. They were risking their lives. I'm looking upon this award that I'm going to receive tonight as an award presented not only to myself but to all my colleagues who made it possible for our station to resist the pressures, to bring the objective and balanced information to our viewers in Russia.
Q: Are there continuing worries about how the Chechen situation might develop? I believe there was a bomb explosion a couple of days ago that killed some people. So it seems that the operation down there is not over yet.
A: Definitely it's not over yet. The situation will continue to be very complicated and tense for quite a long time. They are holding very controversial elections in Chechnya on the same day, on the 17th of December. And many things depend on how these elections are going to take place and what will be the outcome. Let us wait. I'm saying again, let us wait until the 17th - well, actually, the morning of the 18th of December.
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And now there's a new source: the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty site on the World Wide Web.
RFE/RL used to compile the Daily Digest, but that job has been taken over by the Open Media Research Institute, which like RFE/RL is now based in Prague. This new Web site marks RFE/RL's return to its role as a content provider on the Net.
In addition to information on the Russian elections, the new site offers background information on the areas of Central and Eastern Europe served by Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. To make comments, suggestions, send e-mail to: wwwsitemgr@rferl.org
Vybor Regionov is a fortnightly newsletter published by the Russian-American Press and Information Center and the Mass Media Research Center in Moscow. According to a recent report in the Center for Civil Society International's publication Net Talk, the newsletter - "Choice of the Regions" in English - reports on local media coverage of the campaign, including the relationship between the press and local authorities, the role of local electoral commissions and the activities of political parties.
The newsletter is available in Russian and in English, in print and electronic form. For information on the Russian-language edition, send e-mail to Andrei Richter at arichter@glas.apc.org. For the English edition, write Anthony Salvia at ats@glas.apc.org.
For other media sources, you can check our own Russia Plus Media hotlist.
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Russia's elections and news media are among the topics for "Sunday at the Solarium," an occasional chat session presented on the University of Tennessee's Solar server, courtesy of Friends and Partners. You're also welcome to discuss the recent "New Media for a New World" conference or just pass along your best wishes for the holidays. The scheduled time is 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Moscow time) on Sunday, December 17 - Election Day. Another session may be held 12 hours later, depending on interest.
To join the conversation, telnet to solar.rtd.utk.edu (or solar.cini.utk.edu, which is an alternate name for the same Internet address), and log in as "fp-irc" (without the quotes). This is a standard Internet Relay Chat session: You can change your screen name by typing the command "/nick yourname" and hitting the Enter key. You type comments on your screen, then hit Enter to have those comments displayed for all to see.
If you are using an IRC client program, connect to solar.rtd.utk.edu and use the command "/join #friends." We will be on the #friends channel. If you have any questions, feel free to write glasnews@eskimo.com. See you at the Solarium!
The legacy of the nuclear age is a significant concern in Tomsk, as it is in Washington state. During a visit to Seattle and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Boris Nekrasov of the International Young Journalists Association in Tomsk sought out opportunities for exchange, ranging from people-to-people visits to newspaper partnerships.
If you're interested in forging an exchange (or just visiting Tomsk), please e-mail Nekrasov at tverd@glas.apc.org. In the United States, you can contact Hilary Harding at Heart of America Northwest by phoning 206-382-1014 in Seattle or e-mailing bb270@scn.org.
These news sources, as well as many others, are on our Russia Plus Media listing of Web sites.