Veteran TV Presenter Laments Current State Of Journalism In Russia

File Photo of Russian Television Studio

(RIA Novosti – May 25, 2013(?)) Vladimir Pozner, a distinguished Russian journalist and veteran television presenter, has expressed dismay at the current state of journalism in Russia. During an “open lecture” which he gave at the multimedia centre of Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Pozner said the attitude to freedom of the press was “cynical” in Russia. “The smaller the audience the bigger the freedom,” he explained.

According to Pozner, journalism in Russia was born under Mikhail Gorbachev. Before then, there had been no journalism, only propaganda, the journalist said.

“There was never any journalism in Russia because there were no three real branches of power. By real I mean independent from each other,” he explained.

In his opinion, “Soviet journalism had nothing to do with journalism, it was pure propaganda”. “There were brilliant journalists but there was no journalism”, Pozner said.

“It is important to understand this because then we will have to admit that it was under Gorbachev, unloved by our people, and his closest associate, Yakovlev (head of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Yakovlev – RIA), that journalism was born in Russia,” Pozner stressed.

The job of the journalist, according to Pozner, is to tell the truth, keep a tight rein on his or her own likes and dislikes and try to be objective. But at present journalism in Russia cannot be regarded as the fourth estate, he added.

At present, he said, “there is no fourth estate in Russia – there is only one power and, let’s face it, all the other branches of power depend on the executive power”.

“The fourth estate is not an authority that can do things, but it can draw everyone’s attention to what is wrong. In this respect, journalism is in a poor state these days,” he continued.

“What does it mean for a journalist to be patriotic? It means to show where things are wrong. Because no-one else will show this. Have you ever heard the authorities showing this?” Pozner asked his audience.

According to Pozner, there is no such thing as “citizen journalism”. “It is nonsense,” he said, adding that “television has not been, and will not be replaced” by the internet and blogs. The internet is a place where one can express an opinion or engage in an argument. “But it is not a professional thing,” he said.

According to Pozner, journalists do not form public opinion. “It is not their job. It is the job of very different comrades,” he said.

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