#6323
[Second Issue of the Day]
#10
St. Petersburg Times
June 25, 2002
letter to the editor
Younger Journalists Offer Future Hope
Editor,
Recently, the U.S. State Department sent me on a five-day speaking engagement in Moscow to deliver a series of presentations to government press secretaries, reporters, leaders of national political parties and journalism students. The World Bank Institute and Press Development Institute hosted the programs where I was to address such topics as the importance of a free and independent press, the responsibilities and ethics of a press officer and the relationship between the government and the press in America.
Just like a lungful of Moscow air makes you realize how much progress we've made in environmental protection in America, fielding questions from any of these audiences makes you realize how far we've come since the days of Peter Zenger's New York Weekly Journal and the United States' nearly 300-year tradition of a free press.
To the press secretaries, I stressed just how important it is to be responsive and to welcome the adversarial relationship between a governor's spokesman and the press.
"Laying out in detail your policies and programs and fielding the toughest questions a reporter can throw at you is one of the most effective ways you can publicize and promote your initiatives," I told them. "If your programs can't stand the scrutiny of a reporter, they'll never stand the scrutiny of the voters."
That was a foreign concept to the press secretaries. Their bosses got elected without the help of a free press. "Didn't need a free press then, don't need one now," was the operating mantra.
Many see nothing wrong with the established practice of political leaders or their parties owning newspapers. If they need coverage, that's where they'll get it.
The press secretaries were astounded to be told that former New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman, for whom I served as chief spokesperson, regularly held two or three public events or press availabilities each day. Their bosses participated in news events only when they absolutely had to, perhaps once or twice a week.
When told of Whitman's difficulties attracting television news coverage out of New York or Philadelphia, the flacks asked why we didn't just buy a station.
Clearly Pravda is history, but it's going to be a while before officeholders embrace a free and independent press in the former Soviet Union.
Older reporters with whom I spoke saw themselves and their newspapers as extensions of the political elite. Many of the established reporters continue to embrace the idea that paying for news coverage was an acceptable practice.
Sharing the podium with Anna Politkovskaya, the war-sharpened correspondent from Novaya Gazeta whose passionate reporting of the war in Chechnya earned her personal hardship and worldwide praise, showed me that the new generation of Russian reporters are indeed committed to writing the stories straight, with an enormous commitment to personal and journalistic ethics.
Unfortunately for those reporters and their readers, their newspapers and television stations are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. But to the 120 journalism students at Moscow State University for the Humanities, Politkovskaya is an icon and an inspiration. The students understand that their most precious assets are their ethics and their belief that a free press is fundamental to democracy.
I told them that, despite the whining of politicians who may not be receiving the most flattering news coverage, the government and the press are in the same business - to bring about positive social change.
U.S. politicians and editors may regularly differ on just what positive social change is, but our shared goal is to make our world a better place to live, work and raise a family.
The idealism of Russia's next generation of journalists is refreshing. Though many will be corrupted by the conventions of established post-Soviet journalism, many will not.
The next generation of Russian journalists will tell the truth, and probably live. They'll be backed-up by the unfettered flow of information on the Internet. Their readers, like the readers of many U.S. newspapers, will expect and demand the truth. They will know the truth when they see it, and know it when they don't.
The future of a prosperous Russia requires a free and independent media. Until Western investors can rely on the information they glean from Russian newspapers, dollars and euros will be slow in coming to the free markets of the former Soviet Union.
When public opinion and public policies are shaped by news reports delivered by editors, reporters and publishers who answer to a calling higher than personal enrichment, true democracy will be realized in the new Russia.
Though in the past 10 years our friends in Russia have come a long way toward a free press, they have a long way to go. Fortunately, with the idealism of their students and the growing influence of an Internet that knows no boundaries, they'll complete their journey.
Peter J. McDonough Jr
Pennington, New Jersey
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