Monday, June 25, 2001
Russian media falls on bad days By Vladimir Radyuhin MOSCOW, JUNE 24. Barely freed from the fetters of Communist censorship, the Russian press has fallen into the claws of a corruption-ridden market economy. Up to 70 per cent of articles in leading Russian newspapers are paid for, media experts say. Most publications, both state-owned and private, have official price lists they discreetly distribute to trusted public relations companies which supply them with paid stories on behalf of both business companies and politicians. Earlier this year, a St. Petersburg-based PR company caught over a dozen newspapers red-handed by getting them to carry for money a story about a fictitious newly-opened store. The names of the papers were then revealed at a press conference in Moscow. Another PR company, Lobbynet, which monitors nine leading Moscow publications, has calculated on the basis of the newspapers' own price rates that they pulled from $40,000 to $540,000 in one month by publishing disguised advertising. The list includes some of the largest-circulation dailies, such as Trud and Komsomolskaya Pravda, the high-brow Nezavisimaya Gazeta and the official mouthpiece of the Russian Parliament, Parlamentskaya Gazeta. Lobbynet says the business works both ways, with newspapers accepting money also for not printing a story. By Lobbynet's ``moderate estimate'', the nine papers together earn more than $25 millions a year in this way. Some experts say the figure is grossly underestimated. Newspapers are pushed to engage in black advertising practice by dire financial problems. Most papers cannot have the legitimate support they need to operate, as Russia's advertising market is still too small - only one-third the size of Poland's. Also, business entities have little incentive to declare their advertising expenditures because these are not fully tax deductible. The Anti-Monopoly Ministry, the only body authorised to combat black advertising, has just five officials assigned to police the entire country, and most they can do is charge fines. According to some estimates, paid stories account for as much as 50 per cent of the Russian press budget. Apart from helping newspapers to survive, paid stories are also an additional source of income for newspaper staff. In many newspapers salaries are so low that reporters and editors have no choice but to push planted stories, says Mr. Sergei Strokan, a veteran journalist who has worked for various periodicals. Exceptions to this rule are few and far between. One was the Media-Most group, set up by the business tycoon, Mr. Vladimir Gusinsky. According to Mr. Strokan, who had worked for a magazine published by Media-Most, the group had a special security service which probed each case of suspected planted stories. But then Mr. Gusinsky paid his journalists several times more than most other media. Earlier this year, the tycoon lost his empire in a court suit orchestrated by the Kremlin, which judged his media too hostile to the political regime in Russia.
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