'Meet the press' in Russia meets the new censor

It was nothing unusual when Andrei Kolesnikov, a leading newspaper columnist, was invited last week to appear on Svoboda Slova, one of Russian TV's hottest public-affairs talk shows.

But Mr. Kolesnikov says he was astonished when asked to come a day early - because the show, whose name means "Freedom of the Word," is known for its live cut-and-thrust political dialogue.

"The host apologized to me and said he's not happy about this at all," says Kolesnikov. "But all the main talk shows have switched to being pre-recorded recently, because they're scared" by a new election law that could shut them down for remarks that authorities deem improper.

It smacks strongly of Soviet times - except that today's censors are not Communist Party hacks planted in editorial offices, but the managers of media outlets themselves.

Ostensibly, the law is aimed at curbing the "black PR," or bought-and-paid coverage that marked previous Russian elections.

But its effect is to ban virtually all independent political commentary, analysis, or forecasting during the parliamentary election campaign that began last week and runs until Dec. 7.

"The media are being blocked from playing their role as a public control mechanism," says Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, an independent press watchdog. "If there is no public oversight, how can we be sure criminals won't get elected?"

The law forbids - but defines vaguely - any sort of electoral "advocacy," and would seem to reduce reporters to little more than stenographers.

After two violations, an offending newspaper, radio, or TV station can be shut down. With the campaign season barely begun, the Central Election Commission, in charge of enforcing the law, has already issued a warning to Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper known for its investigative reporting.

Sergei Bolshakov, a Central Election Commission official and one of the new law's authors, offered guidance to journalists in a recent newspaper interview through the following example: Suppose there is a candidate who promises free apartments to voters if he or she is elected. Journalists may report that fact, he said, but must refrain from any commentary about the candidate or his track record, even if he had pledged free apartments in a previous election but never delivered - "because that is not information, it is your analysis and is not appropriate as information," Mr. Bolshakov said.

Moreover, Bolshakov warned, if a media outlet decides to cover any of the 44 political parties running for parliament, it must give equal space and treatment to all of them. Critics say this requirement is surreal, since only about four major parties have much chance of gaining the 5 percent minimum vote needed to enter parliament.

The Kremlin-backed law is seen as particularly threatening to the Communist Party and to Yabloko - both powerful opposition forces who would be equated in the media with such tiny newcomers as the Conceptual Party of Unification.

"It's ridiculous and counterproductive to force journalists to pay equal attention to every single candidate, the unknowns and famous leaders alike," says Valery Fyodorov, director of the independent Center for Political Trends. "How are the media supposed to work at all under such conditions?"

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