NEWS
/ HOW THE NEWS IS REPORTED IN RUSSIA, FEBRUARY 2012
14.03.2012
How the News is Reported in Russia February 2012 by Andrei Nesterov editorial support by Margaret Godwin-Jones
The two largest state-run television stations in Russia are First Channel and Russia Channel. Most Russians get their news from one of these two stations. SRAS's Andrei Nesterov compiled the following synopsis of how major events were covered by news reports on these two stations. This news review is part of SRAS's monthly "obzor" publications. For more reviews, see the newsletter for this corresponding month. If you would like to request that a story be covered here, inform our editor.
We are now providing weblinks to the related stories from the Russian broadcasters when available online! If no link is available, the material was covered in broadcasts, but not posted (or at least not found by us) online.
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February, Week 4
Rallies on Eve of Presidential Elections
First Channel reported on massive rallies supporting Vladimir Putin on February 26, stating that “both Muscovites and those who came to Moscow to express support for their candidate” were among the rallies’ participants. For example, 130,000 supporters held a rally inside the Luzhniki Stadium, while others watched it on a large screen installed on the street. Putin arrived at the stadium and made a speech, calling people “to unite around our Motherland,” and thanking them for their support.
First Channel also reported that some citizens of Uzbekistan “tried to arrange provocation: they intended to hold signs with text stating they were brought here for money, and that each of them wàs supposed to receive a 600-rouble payment for participation.”
On the same day, the Communist party held its own rally with 2,500 people in the center of Moscow, and LDPR, the party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, had a rally with 1,500 people.
“An unusual rally,” as First Channel put it, took place at the Exhibition Center (VVTS), where political scientist Sergey Kurginyan and his supporters protested “against both the authorities and revolutions.” The protesters were wearing red clothing with red stars.
The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church made a statement at the founding congress of the Movement in Support of the Army, Air Force, and Navy. He addressed young people, saying that they should think about preserving the country’s freedom and independence. Putin’s supporters arranged the congress, supported by the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
In December 2011, after opposition rallies protesting unfair elections occurred in several Russian cities, the media quoted President Medvedev in his annual Address to the Federal Assembly as saying that, “I hear everyone who talks about the need for change, and I understand them. We must give all citizens a legitimate opportunity to participate in the country’s political life.”
In February, Russian TV reported that President Medvedev introduced a number of bills on reforming Russia’s political system, including measures such as re-establishing direct elections for regional governors and simplifying the procedure for officially registering political parties.
While the leaders of existing political parties, such as LDPR and the Communist party, opposed the President’s proposal to require only 500 signatures for registering political parties instead of the current 50,000, the chairman of Yabloko party, Sergey Mitrokhin, expressed support for the initiative. He stated that the current requirement of 50,000 signatures makes it easy to ban a party the authorities do not like.
Meanwhile, the leader of the non-registered party “Left Front,” Sergey Udaltsov, criticized the proposed reforms saying that “they have a half-hearted, incomplete, shapeless nature,” and because “the mechanism of the reforms has not been fully elaborated."
Boris Nemtsov, one of the leaders of the Solidarity political opposition movement, stated that political parties should be registered “by a letter of notice,” and that collecting signatures should be required only if a party decides to run in elections.
First Channel stated that the bill introduced by Dmitry Medvedev does not re-establish elections for deputies from single mandate electoral districts, but instead, party candidates will represent not only their party, but the entire territory where they are elected.
For two weeks, Russian TV has been reporting on President Medvedev’s proposals to reform Russia’s political system. First Channel quoted the Russian President at a meeting with his supporters, where many people told the President that they wanted to elect their region’s governor; he responded, that “since they want it, we will give them this opportunity.” Dmitry Medvedev also said that the elected governor would be entitled to stay in office no longer than two terms.
Also, the procedure for registering political parties will be simplified: any party with 500 members would be entitled to be registered, as opposed to the current requirement of 50,000. President Medvedev stated that “Russia must have a strong right-wing party,” and that if a right-wing party had gained seats in the Duma, there would have been fewer protesters since they would have had representation in parliament.
A week after the meeting with his supporters, President Medvedev met with leaders of smaller opposition parties. The President discussed the bills he introduced to the Duma on reforming the political system in Russia. According to First Channel, if these bills are adopted, Russia “will become absolutely different: governors will be elected directly, there will be more political parties, and they will be able to register without gathering tens of thousands signatures.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, denounced the idea of an increase in the number of officially registered political parties, saying that “this happened in the 1990s; we had a sea of parties, and criminals were getting into all the local positions of power; they took over entire districts.”
Russian television reported that many rallies took place in Moscow and other major Russian cities on Sunday, February 4. Outside of Moscow, the biggest rally occurred in Voronezh, with police estimating officially that twelve thousand people attended. In St. Petersburg, approximately five thousand people, from all political spectrums from liberal to nationalist, gathered for an opposition rally.
According to First Channel, Moscow witnessed "a confrontation of two value systems:" at Bolotnaya Square, some city residents called to continue rallies demanding changes to the entire political system in Russia, while another, larger group of Muscovites held a rally at Poklonnaya Hill supporting the current government, with the slogan "We Will Not Allow Them to Destroy Russia.”
First Channel mocked the opposition rally at Bolotnaya Square as not being unified. First Channel reported that four kinds of participants: people without firm political beliefs, representatives of political parties, radical nationalists, and people with a leftist political outlook.
First Channel stated that the pro-government rally had about 190 thousand participants, which exceeded the number allowed by authorities, while the opposition rally at Bolotnaya Square had 34-36 thousand people. Vladimir Putin stated that the pro-government rally participants expressed support of the authorities’ accomplishments, which is important for Putin since “it is impossible to work without this.” Putin expressed willingness to personally pay the fine for having more people at this rally than allowed by the Moscow city government.
In its report, First Channel constantly compared smaller opposition rallies, such as a rally with 100 participants in Vladivostok, and much bigger, pro-government rallies, such as the one in Krasnoyarsk which was held under the slogan “For preserving stability in the country.”
Alleged Black PR by Putin’s Opponents
Russia Channel additionally stated that the four presidential candidates who are competing against Vladimir Putin are concentrating their efforts on anti-Putin actions. For example, in February, a large anti-Putin slogan was installed on a building in the center of Moscow, and it remained there for one hour, “so that its masterminds could give an interview to the Russian Service of BBC with the slogan in the background.” Another alleged action of black PR was the provocative statement that participants in the pro-government rally were paid 800 rubles each. According to Russia Channel, reporters were trying to find these people, who allegedly had been paid for participation in the rally, but none were found.
The channel didn't mention that reporters at The Moscow Times, Radio Free Europe and several other news agencies had managed to find them.
