The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-02
WITHOUT INDEPENDENT JOURNALS.
PeculIarities OF the Laws Regulating
Newspapers in the Russian Empire.
TProokivn FagIeI

Peouliarities of the Laws Regulating
Newspapers in the Russian Empire.
brooklyn Eazlel
In The first place, if we except The
Moscow Gazette, there is not such a
thing as an independent newspaper in
the whole Russian empire Superficial
scoffers at Russia may cap this by say
ing that there has never been an indie
pendent newspaper in Russia, and that
where writer really claims freedom of
views he has to resort to the channels
OF foreign journals for the expression of
opinions which would never be toler-
ated at home. This, however, is mis-
conception, readily arising from ignor-
ance OF the censor arrangements of
Russia. In that country newspapers
are divided into two catagories
that are scanned by the censor anterior
to publication, and those that are
not scanned until they have actually
appeared. All the prominent papers
belong to the first category, and most
of those published in st. Petersburg and
Moscow to the latter.
When the censor has to pass every line
of print before it can publicly appear it
is obvious that there can be no genuine
expression of thou9t, and thus, with
has never been an Independent proYin-
cial newspaper in Russia. But the case
is different with the dailies of the two
capitals. Providing a 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
Retkoff, of The Moscow Gazette, but a
decade ago the case was very different.
The Golos, for instance, was motor ious
for the independence of its views. The
Russki Courier, of Moscow, was an
other thoroughly Independent paper
In those days one really read in The
Golos what its brilliant staff of writer's
thought, but such freedom of criticism
was inconvenient to the government.
While the emperor was away in Turkey
The GOlos and several other papers of
its class acquired license of expression
that had to be checked on his return
home.
The Golos had always, from the out
set of its career, been in hot water, but
after the Turkish war the warnings,
fines, Introduction of street sales and
suppressions followed each other with
such rapidity that the paper no sooner
expiated one offense than it was in for
another. At last, tired of the conflict,
the government hit upon very effect
i've mode of silencing its antagonist. A
new law passed providing that any
paper suppressed should not be allowed
to reappear without passing into the
category of the inferior press, and sub
hitting to censorship anterior to publ
aQfinn Tho KronuolyTy triad fn 10 n
by dropping the title of Golos at the
close of the period Of suppression, and
through a second party Modestoff, one
of the sub-edito-s, issuing new daily,
got up exactly the same as before, but
with 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 a 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
be given of this mode of manipulating
the press. Sometime ago an accident
OOSOAACO Ol1 ll4C 1AOOOOW AetA1 ftILCduJ
attributable to carelessness on the part |
of the railway officials. The .oscow
railway is not state property, but the
minister of railways considered his |
amour propre sufficiently interested in
the accident to send round circular to
the editors ordering them to refrain |
from any comment on it.
One can 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
from its columns The |
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
l. Il II