CSEW: November 1995

Glasnost Defense Foundation

The Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF), organized in February 1991, describes its goals as “the defense of journalism and the defense of journalists. Its major activities include:

giving legal and financial aid to journalists in conflict with local, regional or Federal authorities;
disseminating information on mass media legislation within Russia and abroad; and
organizing an independent media network in Russia.

In 1994 the Moscow International Press Club awarded Glasnost Defense Foundation a prize for its defense of mass media rights.

Also in 1994, GDF published the results of a survey comparing attitudes of Russian journalists working in eight regions of the Federation with those of journalists based in Moscow.

This study, which is available in English (Journalists and Journalism of Russian Provinces), is based on 1,230 completed questionnaires and contains some interesting findings. Among these are:

% of journalists ranking as considerably important or most important:

Ostankino TV			60.5%
Russian TV			57.5
Local independent TV		41.5
Local governmental TV		24.0
NTV				22.5
St. Petersburg TV		16.0
Cable TV			12.5

According to the authors of the survey these results showed that:

independent TV companies can be competitive with central TV (Ostan-kino and Russian TV); and local governmental TV—despite the subsidies it receives directly and in the form of disguised pay-offs by advertisers is failing to compete successfully with local independent TV.

% of journalists who viewed the following changes of the post-Soviet period as . . . (+ is for the better, - is for the worse)

                                         +       -
Liquidation of the Soviet system	58	 9
Strengthening of Church    		47	10
Situation with mass media		41	17
Liberation of prices			35	24
Situation with human rights		30	24
Dissolution of the USSR     		20	31

A major limitation on the media’s independence in Russia continues to be the large role of government financing. Over half of the respondents in the GDF survey worked for government-owned media organizations.

Glasnost Defense Foundation
4 Zubovsky Blvd., Suite 432
Moscow 119021
Tel: (095) 201-4420
Fax: (095) 201-4947
E-mail: [email protected]

This article is from the November 1995 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/95-11/glasdef.htm
Last updated: March 26 1996

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