That’s according to a new report called “Muzzling The Media: The Return Of Censorship In The Commonwealth Of Independent States” by Freedom House, which found that broadcast monopolies, oligarchic power, corrupt judiciaries, and Internet censorship has resulted in less press freedom than existed in the early 1990s.
RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher asked Freedom House’s director of studies, Christoper Walker, to explain the report’s findings.
RFE/RL: This report says there are new forms of media control being used in the ex-Soviet region – the phrase you use is “a contemporary model of censorship.” How different is that from what was used in the past?
Christopher Walker: Well, the old Soviet model was really one that could be described as a “statefied model.” That is to say all dimensions of producing news were controlled by the state, and it made it a rather monolithic system.
The difference today, certainly in a country like Russia, is that you have a much more diverse range of tools that are being applied to control the media and I think that this is the principal difference that one sees, as a point of comparison between the Soviet period and today.
RFE/RL: The report identifies four trends in how governments are controlling what the public can read, watch, and hear -- what are those methods?
Walker: The first in the recent period is an intensification of mass media control and I think it’s fair to say that in many respects, you have insecure regimes seeking to ensure regime security by using television or to advance very, very narrow regime interests.
The second trend that we saw from our findings was that legislative measures were being used to tighten already very repressive media systems. And this was the case in a number of countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
The third part of the crackdown that emerged was an increasing focus on international media, including international broadcasting, so the efforts by the Russian authorities to hamper in one form or another the local partners of institutions like RFE/RL [for example] has made it more difficult for information to reach large audiences in Russia.
And the fourth part of the crackdown is one that focuses most on newspapers, which really had been a secondary interest in terms of controlling the flow of information, chiefly because newspapers, as a general matter, reach far smaller audiences.
RFE/RL: In many countries that you looked at, the Internet has become a special target of authorities’ ire. Do they fear people are exchanging and reading ideas online that are contrary to government policy?
Walker: The emergence of the Internet is certainly one of the chief points of difference between the Soviet era and today. The diffuse and mobile nature of Internet technology and the ability of individuals to post information about local communities -- or issues that aren’t finding their way into mainstream media in many of these countries -- is really a difference.
The challenge in the near- to mid-term is developing the sorts of information that can actually add value to the public debate, the political debate.
And also, of course, the concern is that at some level, there will be increasing pressures applied by the authorities who clearly aren’t so interested in having a wider discussion on this issue. I think the steps they’ve been taking in the other media are an indication of this. So there is a concern that the focus will increase in terms of regulation and perhaps intervention, to the extent it’s possible by authoritarian governments in the region.
RFE/RL: One of the most startling things about the report is that in 1994, six of the 12 ex-Soviet states you studied were considered “partly free” – and now, 13 years later, only two are. What has happened since then?
Walker: Well, one of the principal explanations for this is the consolidation of authoritarian systems by the elites that are dominating politically in most of the countries in the region, in fact. So this is probably the principal cause. There’s been a larger crackdown on independent institutions. The crackdown on the media sector is particularly disturbing. Without an open media it’s very difficult to develop larger democratic institutions and institutional goals.
The data we saw from more than a decade ago really was suggestive of media systems in a number of countries that were opening but were nascent, and not fully mature by any means. But there was sort of promise that this imperfect, pluralistic media environment could take forward steps and I think what we’ve seen in the years thereafter is that very powerful interests have managed to reorganize themselves, consolidate power, and deny the development of open and pluralistic media.
Christopher Walker (RFE/RL)