ok the first yes good morning my name is ron mcnamara on behalf of our chairman senator cardin and our cochairman congressman alcee hastings i welcome you to today's briefing of the commission on security and cooperation in europe regarding developments in the state of media in the russian federation i'm joined by my colleague parker who's serving as our analysts for developments in the russian federation i'll share a few brief opening remarks and then certainly recognize any members of the commission or members of congress who might appear this morning and then kyl will do an introduction of our special guest today as with all commission briefings there will be a full transcription of today's proceedings posted on the commission's website which is w w w dot c s e e g o v in addition should time permit we will entertain questions from the audience we ask that you do keep your questions distinct provide your name for the transcription purses and any affiliations that you might have so we'll see if time permits as she is me ask prime minister putin about the state of media in the russian federation and he is likely to launch into a barrage of statistics that would make an  operad from the soviet planning agency proud but the numbers this numbers game is merely a diversionary tactic aimed at overwhelming the bothersome questioner and masking the truth about the gradual yet steady erosion of independent journalism in russia since his assumption of power a decade ago this is not to suggest that there were not challenges pursuit of what he and his kremlin colleagues termed managed democracy has taken its toll on russia's democratic development and key elements of civil society especially human rights defenders and independent journalist one of its growing list of victims on a political sky once quipped my job is simple to look around and wri what i see like her scores of her colleagues including paul klebnikov have paid for their journalistic pursuits with their lives the harsh reality is that those who venture into sensitive subjects such as human rights abuses or corruption run the risk of sharing that fate investigations are opened rarely leading to arrest and even rarer to prosecutions at least a handful of russian journalists have been killed in the past year alone among them journalists and human rights activists  meanwhile russia's information space for independent media outlets newspapers radio and television continues to shrink with russians increasingly migrating to blogs and other technologies to fill the void we are fortunate to welcome to the compel sinky commission to day several of russia's remaining independent journalist committed to pursuit of their professional activities in an often hostile and potentially dangerous environment before turning to my colleague kyle parker i did want to make a special note of appreciation to radio free europe radio liberty for their assistance with the witnesses and today's program just going back a little bit in my own involvement in the house  the process when i was detailed to vienna in the late one nine hundred eighty s it was a rather strange dynamic one of the issues i was dealing with was free flow of information most of the western broadcast refused to even sit down and to speak with him so after each of our negotiating sessions i'd go over and speak to them to r f e r l correspondent when the soviet course colleagues would walk by and i'd occasionally say well wouldn't you like to give your own take on today's discussions or what have you and they utterly refused and swore that there would never be a succession of jamming of foreign broadcasts well thankfully have moved significantly past that step or face in development however there are troublesome aspects of the media environment today and we look forward to the presentations of our expert panel just so i'll turn to kyle parker now for any additional comments and the introduction of our expert thank you ron i would also add that the proceedings are being televised on the house t v system and w be later posted on you tube for anyone wants to review him or someone who might not be able to to be here we will start off with dimitri motor author of in the bio it should be outside and also on our website but just a few words based committee to protect journalists for his courageous fight for press freedom since two thousand novus yes a journalist eager to was was well known here in congress and had taken part in a number of exchanges to the open world program in ninety nine and i think two thousand and had a lot of friends among our commissioners and among throughout the halls of congress here i sincerely hope that the current political leadership will have enough willpower and the courage to pursue with investigation to get some results on like the previous administration thank you very much for somewhat of we will certainly carry carry your suggestion back to our to our bosses to our commissioners and their meetings with senior officials of the russian government and now we will turn to mark seem through the tube of his commentary editor forget the musty independent business daily published jointly by the wall street journal and the financial times top politicians and younger people who are involved in pursuing careers in business but we have an opinion page which is one of the very few  presented because russia's tradition of journalism doesn't really divide between fact and opinion and we had to with time and effort to and discussion is has become really important much more important it used to be we were our opinion page get has got more visibility for the past year or two which probably means that people start to think more and start to get getting more serious about crucial issues because we are about crucial issues of policy nomic policy freedom of speech human rights that's what we cover i strongly agree with external forces may do for for russia's situation the freedom of speech is our internal it's most of the things we're dealing with our internal things we we have to deal with them  system moral compass as it were in the world the good in the evil are still you know considered good and evil and that's i think it's very important for for us who work in russia and for  for john for people who are in journalistic profession in russia to to feel that that this well can compost does exist and we still  their russian edition not to run that story on putin in russia which is a case of american company caring about their business in russia and at the same ork in russia who deal with who have to do with a very close tile environment where people don't many people don't understand what freedom of government that's the important cause that we are pursuing and we need some support sort of some moral support from the outside world thank you it is also director of the memo dot ru information agency which focuses on new strategies of mobilizing public opinion and has directed numerous projects on social marketing techniques since one thousand nine hundred ninety s held several posts with human rights organizations with memorial is currently serving as a board member of the international memorial and a representative in memorials moscow office in two thousand and two to two thousand and six he supervised the organization's regional network of seventy branches in russia and other countries of the former soviet union he is also a previous witness at bring on the english at you know we did a couple of years ago strether has really probably the best there is inside or outside of government on current reliable information on the turbulent north caucasus someone who is able to travel throughout these regions which which certainly is fairly complicated logistically and takes no small amount of courage these days with the violence that takes place there someone who's given i think you had a recent five hour sit down with the president of the guest on so so person with great access and during the question answer period please our topic is free media but we have a world renowned expert on the caucasus which is of great interest to this commission please feel free to pose him some of no was killed and we do see that wave of killings is not something new happening in the region we do see that at  of people kidnapped and killed and our responsibility i believe in that in being not that much it's not that much understood how he shows in the european community on the level of responsibility i believe will share stories of those people in the region who brave enough to do their daily work and i strongly believe that  it is complicated not to see that as a very much depend on how you react if it is any public interest in your country in europe which is what they do because in our situation in chechnya and in other parts of russia although it is publicly announced as an equal by the local leaders who need to meet the real terrorism not just the fret but the reality it's quite clear that a number all of attacks the number of the relations is only increasing from both sides from the size of rebels and terrorists from the side of the law enforcement so many years i do believe that there are new leaders and new policies implemented in the northern caucasus there are leaders who are trying to fight of corruption as a president of  and yours as well as the russian ones would be interested in the real corporation new type of corporation not training from one side to another side but the real partnership that would be strong been seen as a frozen conflict the international community or lose almost gave up on it and then a final there were got what we got that august if it would be more active role and they might be more active role now in the which would be which would be facing these new type of developments all of internet then they see the essential role of the public can gauge amount which might be so differently developing the situation in the region right now i'm not talking about the political developments i'm talking about social  public developments which we saw coming out from people nowadays in many cases including the campaign we're so organized during elections in the united states and the last one would be to focus on these approaches targeting people instead of targeting decision makers instead of publishing targeting those who are really in charge of so many ishu is in charge of so many issues we have a chance newspapers for internet for public awareness campaign and regular people on the ground not only with intel against and not on little opinion makers those people who right now unfortunately  i strongly believe in russia in a post soviet cancers are strongly believed in and south caucasus as well and these new approaches this is a challenge who do we see any change all the changes just supposed to happen you thank you very much and certainly appreciate the variety of issues and concerns that the panelists have raised i did have one or two sort of general questions  there were mentions of president medvedev and i wonder if the panelists could point to subs any substantive changes in approach to the media under president medvedev compared with his predecessor current prime putin and just picking up on this last point regarding new technologies and media and so forth i wonder if you could also talk about the challenges that sort of the typical russian citizen who's interested in expressing his or her opinion in utilizing these and then also the  authorities in utilizing these new technologies as well i guess one of the thoughts that comes to mind is we might see somebody with an i pod or some outward manifestation of  buy in into some of these technologies but i would suggest that those types of technologies can also be utilized to reinforce certain messages that some of the russian leadership through organizations such as nashi which i see is pursuing lawsuits against foreign journalists in addition to domestic lawsuits that have been brought by a number of individuals so mainly the differences in approach between president medvedev and his predecessor now prime minister and these new technologies the commission kyle organized a briefing about a week ago or so on the use of these new technologies so if you could address that question in the context of the russian federation that would be great thank you not limited to i would say that one of them was a cop the other one is not very expensive and very exclusive cell phones and now when he has a birthday party sir elton john performs for three million if i'm not mistaken   huge problem that prevents russia from developing as an economy and as a society and i totally subscribe to into an idea of an international corporation in pursuing stories of russian corrupt officials and well connected businessmen who are trying to understand the country situation and who would be able to contribute to country's development if they had a chance and many of these people are my audience audience of not just in universities our non governmental organizations but in government people who work for all kinds of ministries and presidential administrations who actually understand very well the limitations of the current system of government they just need they just need coordination they just need  this feeling that change can can be brought about that's russia currently is is a society which doesn't doesn't believe that change is possible it's it's a moral problem in a way it's not just it's it's a social and moral  need probably little tiny successes on things like civil society achieving a success press publishing something and  achieving a result however limited and local that's what we are working and we need the kind of moral support that foreigners can provide thank maybe not so many examples we don't see substantial change towards media sure we're on see how independent t v stations radio stations are flourishing in russia we don't see y being right you're getting and points for i mean for us to focus on these new approaches for us to really think how to work this in society is that people thank you thank you very much i will now entertain any questions that you may have from the audience there is a microphone set up in the room here we do ask that you keep your question fairly to the point and if you could start  your name and any affiliation that you have thank you can you hear me now ok my name is alex was i teach at the foreign service institute the caucasus area studies and i was actually interviewed in june by the caucasus started when i was moscow they got me by surprise i want to say i have a bookshelf about twice as long as this desk books about chechnya and they're all grim reading there's only so much i can read and therefore i'm fascinated by mr shadow suggestion that there need to be new kinds of n g o s projects that are perhaps different from this old style of journalism which is very important document what what happens what kinds specifically of new this framework it was expected that politicians here in the west would influence russian politicians and they would make our lives better it's not working at all it's not working out all in twenty first century it was not so that might be social marketing strategies that might be any kind of strategic communication strategy as we do have experience of these kind of projects and we do have a data which shows they i think that they are making difference they are changing things and for sure that's not about political change personally i don't believe in any lotion on russia i don't think that's a good sign that father concha i don't think the political issue is the most important one for the then they can change things on the ground and there are hundreds of cases like that be active don't slip just arise up and be active because in many cases  i'm saying something bad so i strongly believe that he has a very different point of views in many cases but it is a major threat and a lot of different specific stories that's not only as a meetings and the demonstrations which are needed i strongly believe that for example in the caucuses we do let very much that public discussion debate there are so many discussions and so many in their region so these specific scenarios and these specific projects i think might come up for all but people on the ground and we do have such a people so we do all right good afternoon my name is karen fischer i'm from apco worldwide here in d c and i'm wondering given that the state owns or controls all of the media outlets in russia when you have a situation with a highly publicized case such as that that do not lead to any action any real property cold thing what do you think about this and a couple of questions for the go to shed of there has been a speculation that the you know skepticism say so about this and another question about the rise of violence enough because following the war in georgia in august two thousand and eight  you think there is a connection between the war in august last year and the rise of violence in the cup because i think so but i strongly believe that there is need in the information for example from the caucasus there is a need to know what's going on then you have so many channels which are  independent agencies and papers which exist are showing that there is an understanding that the reason needs facts which would be provided not by p r companies which are collecting money touring sending is giving me a thieving that there are so many people who are ready to fight or ready to organize terrorist attacks who believe in things which is not so easy to understand thousand people to talk about possible independence from russia or independence from the region they leave him and that's really where very much developing the whole idea and the whole approach including the approach i see here in united states and europe in the illing separately these are one country these are not a conscious approach we know from ancient rome these approaches not for intermedia research institute and my question to the panel is twofold first of all intermediaries and other surveys has had shown that the majority of russians are quite happy with the media that they have in fact about two thirds to seventy percent say they they are content with what they have how does one explain this attitude the second part of my question concerns one third of russians have a favorable attitude of ukrainians while in ukraine the opposite is true ninety percent have a favorable attitude towards russians and as you are discussion of the nation's thirty three famine genocide etc this undoubtedly has fueled contributes to the anti ukrainian attitudes so my question is this to what extent does this represent genuine attitudes of russians or is this largely or mostly a product of russian media thank you if we could have another georgians believe that we need to address some of these issues on a regional basis and by region we mean the baltic black and caspian sea region and to that end we're also interested in creating a network of information and media sources in this region my question is do you have cooperation with organizations media organizations in this region and if so to what extent or what or what would you would like it to be in the future i think we have time for one additional question which will be the final question and then we can have about seven or so minutes for our panelists to respond if there are any other questions officials want them to think it that and national television and therefore i'm very thankful to our t v for that among the minority that been mentioned here already people who are already in franchised people who understand what's going on so we're not converting them scale of mismatch mismanagement that's and inefficiency that is presented by the current government and it's it's our challenge it's it's the challenge that we're facing  sense whenever possible our message is being carried further further down the line for people who don't put on to the who don't read quality newspapers who don't live in moscow who  and also about the social networks as social social networking is a is a growing area lots of people connected more and more connected and that's  journalism is suffering because of because the market situation because of the business model is failing because of the new advertising based model for financing quality journalism is in crisis everywhere in the world and it will be in crisis in russia very soon we're lagging behind in that sense but we will reach that stage where we will have to face this so networking is developing but we the message reasons which are in the position right now oh that's independent well i would call independent media those which are professional those which are not going to any of the political or business frames concludes this hearing this briefing rather of the commission on securing cooperation in europe we definitely appreciate the presence of the expert today and certainly wish you all the best as you return to tomorrow within twenty four hours thank you very much