Bloomberg editorial: How to counter Putin’s attack on the media

What is happening in Ukraine is a special military operation, not a war. Its goal is to free the country from a government dominated by neo-Nazis whose defenders use children as human shields. Vladimir Putin is a hero taking on Western powers obsessed with destroying Russia.

This is the story that most Russians have received from the state television channels that dominate the country’s airwaves. For the good of all, Russians need better information, which is why the international community must support the dwindling number of journalists who, at great personal risk, try to provide it, whether in Russia or reporting on Russia from abroad. .

Even before the war, doing journalism in the Putin regime had become a dangerous task. There was hardly any place to work: one after another, independent places had closed or succumbed to pressure from the Kremlin, and the few that remained operated on a knife-edge, sometimes from established headquarters outside the country, reaching a small fraction of the audience.

Officially classified asforeign agents”, many reporters and editors had to include lengthy disclaimers to everything they wrote or even posted on social media. Posts found to be infringing were punished with fines, beatings, imprisonment, and worse.

Now, however, the Putin regime is going further, turning the practice of journalism into a crime. A new law threatens 15 years in prison for spreading “false information”, which seems to mean anything that deviates from the official Kremlin narrative, including saying that what is going on is a war. Along with other forms of repression, this has forced the remaining non-state media in Russia, including TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy radio, to close or reduce coverage.

Local bureaus of foreign news organizations (including Bloomberg News) have also suspended operations. To silence voices from abroad, Russia blocked services such as Twitter, Facebook and the BBC’s Russian-language website—which had more than tripled its audience since the war began—and responded by restarting its Russian-language shortwave radio service, a relic from the days of the Cold War.

Still, Russian journalists are not giving up. Meduza, a Russian-language news service based in Latvia, began reaching its audience through a smartphone app and by sending emails, which are much harder to block. Several teams, including Meduza, Mediazona, and Agentstvo (which focuses on research), maintain channels on the Telegram communications app, which has been working relatively well.

The Bell, originally a twice-daily business news digest, has switched to cable service mode to cover events surrounding what it carefully calls the “military operation” in Ukraine.

These efforts are extremely precarious. Foreign channels like Meduza, which were already unable to attract advertisers, are now also unable to receive payments from Russian subscribers due to sanctions. All face difficulties in finding shelter for dispersed correspondents.

So what can the international community do? Channeling state aid to Russian media organisations, as some have suggested, would be a mistake: it would undermine the independence these outlets have fought to preserve and validate Putin’s claim that the West is funding its enemies. It is far better for governments to find ways to ensure that independent news continues to reach Russians and to help Russian journalists directly by quickly granting them asylum and working papers.

Individuals, philanthropic organizations, universities and non-governmental organizations can also do their part. They can make donations. They can maintain and expand scholarship programs, instead of expelling Russian students as some have foolishly proposed. They can help you find housing and extend your visas.

They can look for ways to offer free access to virtual private networks in Russia, to help people bypass information blackouts. They can and should do all they can to support Russian civil society in what may turn out to be a long exile, in the hope that its supporters can do some good from abroad and one day return to a very different home.