The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-02-21
PRICE 5 CENTS.
WITHOUT INDEPENDENT JOURNALS.
PecuIIaritfes OF the Laws Regulating
Newspapers in the Russian Empire.



Newspapers in the Russian Empire.
brooklyn EagIe.l
In the first place, if we except The
Moscow Gazette, there is not such q
thing as an independent newspaper in
the whole Russian empire. Superficial
ScoferS 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 0oler-
ated at home This, however, is a mis-
conception, readily arising from lgnor-
ance of the censor arrangements of
Russia. In that country newspapers
are divided into two cataC0rieS those
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 10 tho 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 thought, and thus, with
the exception of The TihiS Obzor, there
has never been an independent provin-
cial newspaper in Russia But the case
is different with the dailios of the two
capitals. Providing q man has the
courage, or is backed up by 6 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
decaie 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 it's 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 not water, but
a ter 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 ofense than it was in for
another At last, tired of the conflict,
the government hit upon very effect
i've mode of sileneing 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
uniting to censorship anterior to publ
cation The Kraevsky tried to evade
by dropping the title of Golos at the
close of the period of suppression. and
through a second party Modestof, one
of the sub-editors, issuing 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 puppet, and
nearly every day send through the
censor circulars to the editors ordering
them to support such and such views,
aud 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
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 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
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 single average
! American daily paper publishes more
/ matter in the real sense of the term
than all the newspapers of tho Russian
empire printed during twentyfoul
hours would yield if their contents
were boiled down" There is a Gerious
meaning in the words often used BY
Russians, that foreigners know more
about what is going on in Russia than
= the Russians themselves.