, 1885-10-02
WITHOUT INDEPENDENT JOURNALS.

WITHOUT INDEPENDENT JOURNALS
r.rpllarities OF tho Laws Regulate
Newspapers in the Russian Empire.
l~Rrookiyn Eazle.l
In the first place, il we except The
Moscow Gazette, there is not sucii Il
thing as an Independent newspaper in
the whole Russian empire. Superfic.ni
scoiers at Russia may cap this by say
ing that there has never been an indr
pendent newspaper in Russia, aud thht
where a writer really claims freedom o.
views he has to resort to the channuli
OF foreign journals for the expression o.
opinions which would never be tnler-
aic at home. This, however, is n mis-
conception, readily arising from ignor
nncc OF the censor arrangements nt
l.ussia. In that country newspapers
are divided into two catagories -thoHe
that are scanned by the censor anterior
to publication, and those that are
not scanned until they have actually
ap cared. All the prominent papers
l%clong to the first category, and most
of those published in t. Petersburg an |
Moscow 10 the latter.
When the censor has to pass every line
OF print before it can publicly appear il
is obvious that there al be no genuine
expression of thought, and thus, with
the exception of The Tiflis Obzor, there
has never been an Independent provin-
cial newspaper in Russia. But the case
is different with the dailies OF the two
capitals. Providing u man has the
courage, or is backed up by a minister.
he can readily express what he thinks.
because it is not until his newspaper Is
already in the hands Of the public that
the censor is aware of its contents. At
the present moment nobody has the
courage to express his opinions except
Retkoif, of The Moscow Gazette, but a
decade ago tho case was very different.
The GOlos, for instance, was motor iou3
for the Independence of its views. The
Russki Courier, of Moscow, was an
other thoroughly Independent paper.
In those days n really read inThe
GolOs what its brilliant staff of writer's
thought, but such freedom OF criticism
was inconyenient to the government.
While the emperor was away in Turkey
The Golos and several other papers of
its class acquired n license of expression
that had TO be checked on his return
homo.
The Golos had always, from the out-
set of its career, been in hot water, but
alter the Turkish war the warnings.
fines, Introduction Of street sales and
suppressions followed each other with
such %rapidity that the paper no sooner
eNpiated one offense than it was in for
another. At last, tired of tho conflict,
the government hit upon n very effect
i've mode of silencing its antagonist. a
new law passed providing that any
paper suppressed should not be allowed
10 reappear without passing into the
category of the inferior press, and sub
hitting to censorship anterior to publ
cation. The Kraeysky tried to eyade
by dropping the title OF Golos at the
close of the period Of suppression. and
through a second party Modestoif, one
OF the sub-editors, issui.g a new daily,
got up exactly the same as before, but
with a different title. But this maneu-
yer was too obvious to deceive the state,
and directly the new paper began to
speak its mind the government summa-
rily suppressed it without resorting to
the usual preliminary three warnings.
Nowadays the various departments of
state use the press as n puppet, and
nearly every day send through the
censor circulars to the editors ordering
them to support such and such views,
and to avoid comment on this or the
other topic. Scores of instances might
DO given Of this mode of manipulating
the press. Sometime ago an accident
occurred on the Moscow railway, already
attributable to carelessness on the part
Of the railway officials. The Moscow
railway is not state property, but the
minister Of railways considered his
amour propro sufficiently interested in
the accident TO send round a circular to
the editors ordering them to refrain
from any comment on il.
One car readily understand the de
graded condition to which such a
course of treatment has reduced the
Russian press. Practically speaking,
all comments worthy of the name have
disappeared from its columns. The
newspapers are of the same size as they
used to be and comprise about the
same amount of printed matter; but
when one comes to examine what that
matter is he finds that it consists of
Opaque padding from beginning to end.
Without exaggeration a single average
American daily paper publishes more
matter in the real sense of the term
than all the newspapers of the Russian
empire printed during twenty-four
hours would yield if their contents
were boiled down" There is a serious
meaning in the words often used by
Russians, that foreigners know more
about what is going on in Russia than
the Russians themselves.