Media Assistance in the Former Soviet Union: A Job Well Done? Manana Aslamazyan, Director General , Internews Russia
Media development activities have been carried out on the territory of the former Soviet Union (FSU) for the last 15 years. Due to the absence of indigenous non – profits at the outset of this process, these projects were largely created and implemented by foreign NGOs which opened their own representative offices in the countries of the FSU. Hundreds of Americans and Europeans have worked in these countries from the beginning of the 1990s. The collapse of the great empire was accompanied by the construction of new states, and each one of these was striving to create its own new media system. Replacing the old state media monopolies were thousands of small local media companies, which had few staff educated in media disciplines, no experience, and no money, but did have a passionate desire to change society and help their fellow citizens in the building of these newly independent states. Western donors were willing to support them through transfer of knowledge and experience of their own media industries, introducing international journalistic standards and promoting ideas of freedom of speech and democracy. Can we consider the job concluded, a job well done? Many of us who participated in all these processes are, 15 years later, bound by feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment. What were the achievements and failures of this - from the point of view of history - relatively short period? Is it possible to identify particular laws of development in different countries of the former Soviet empire?
NEW MEDIA LEGISLATION FOR A NEW ERA
At the beginning of the 1990s, all of the FSU countries sponsored new media legislation. This provided the basis for the appearance of new, private media, which had never existed during the days of the USSR. It seemed that it was only necessary to give permission for new media systems to arise and they would create themselves. The Russian media law, written by three legal experts - Mikhail Fedotov, Yuri Baturin and Yuri Entin - was one of the best. THE EMERGENCE OF AN INDIGENOUS NGO SECTOR
However, like the laws in other countries, it concentrated on the regulation of journalistic and editorial independence, rather than on the regulation of economic relations within the media industry. Written right at the start of the period of transition (1990 – 1991), the authors could not foresee what kind of procedures and protections of economic relationships of the media might be required ten years in the future. Therefore the law could not protect the media
MEDIA MATTERS SECTION 3: Challenges in Media Matters: Practitioner Experiences
“The Russian media law, was one of the best. However , it concentrated on the regulation of journalistic and editorial independence, rather than on the regulation of economic relations within the media industry. Therefore the law could not protect the media from the economic tools that were subsequently used to consolidate state control: monopolisation, taxes, and buy-outs.”
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