Subject: Re: Project PM
From: Mark Adomanis <mark.adomanis@gmail.com>
Date: 5/9/10, 15:46
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Barrett,

Russia's media landscape is pretty fragmented in terms of quality and the degree of state control. In short: TV is low quality and heavily regulated, print media is moderately regulated and of middling quality, and the internet is almost totally unregulated.

As best as I can judge there are essentially no restrictions on Russian internet traffic - there have been some proposals to regulate thing in a more heavy-handed manner, but I'm pretty sure that nothing has come of them (some of the comments on my Russian columns are incredibly derogatory towards Putin, Medvedev, and the government generally, and that is on a website run by a state-owned news agency). I'd actually note that the INOSMI website for which I write is a pretty interesting one - it provides top-notch Russian language translations of a huge array of foreign reporting, including some extremely critical reporting from the NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, etc.

There are a few Russian newspaper that are national in scope and high-quality in terms of content, particularly business-oriented papers like Vedemosti and Kommersant, but no one really reads them since most Russians get their news from television, which is controlled by the state in an extremely direct and repressive manner.

I'll be perfectly honest and say that I generally don't trust any Russian sources of information be they pro- or anti-Kremlin since the standards of journalism are much lower over there and it's not considered unexceptional or even particularly unethical to pay journalists for black PR operations. I usually wait and see if the information is corroborated by other independent Western outlets before deciding its trustworthy.

This is somewhat off topic, but I think relevant to what you're trying to cover: while Russia's media was "free" in the 1990's in the sense that the state didn't exercise formal censorship, it was the lowest quality cesspit you could possibly imagine, businessmen who owned newspapers would straightforwardly use them as propaganda organs in a way that would make even Rupert Murdoch cringe.

hope that helps, apologies if it doesn't,
Mark




On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Got a question for you that's sort of related to Project PM. What's the situation in Russia right now in terms of information flow? For instance, are there many news outlets operating on a national basis that you consider to be trustworthy?


On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Howdy-

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We'll be launching later this summer, am getting things set up in the meanwhile; will send more info reasonably soon.


On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 11:08 PM, Mark Adomanis <mark.adomanis@gmail.com> wrote:
Barrett,

Not sure if you need any Kremlin hacks like me to help out with project PM, but was just reading some stuff you've written about it and it looks really interesting.

best,
Mark



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302