{"id":1392,"date":"2014-12-02T15:54:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T14:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2014-12-02T15:54:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T14:54:54","slug":"moscow-the-unexpected-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/2014\/12\/02\/moscow-the-unexpected-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow \u2013 the unexpected journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Swiss journalist and writer, Roman Berger, recalled his journey to Moscow at the EFJ Annual Meeting and the struggle for journalists and their unions to be independent in a country like Russia where the state controls everything. \u201cMoscow is not a media desert with only pro-government media\u201d \u2013 this is Berger\u2019s conclusion. <\/em><\/p>\n

By Roman Berger<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The delegate from Estonia has summed up the reason of his presence at the EFJ Annual Meeting: \u00ab\u00a0Only when I found out after my research that the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) is a critical organisation, my union was willing to send me as a delegate to participate in the meeting in Moscow.\u00a0\u00bb Meelis Suld told me why he came to Moscow.<\/p>\n

The decision of the EFJ to hold its annual meeting on \u00ab\u00a0Journalism in times of conflict<\/em>\u00a0\u00bb in Moscow was a difficult one. It had led to some unions boycotting it in protest of Putin’s policies in Ukraine. Others have raised the question: how independent can journalists\u2019 unions be in a former soviet country where unions still tend to rely on the state and the rights of workers are not represented?<\/p>\n

But I was surprised. The RUJ is very critical about the government. They openly condemned the government for the \u00ab\u00a0rapidly shrinking media freedom in Russia.\u00a0\u00bb They denounced the propaganda conducted by both Russian and Ukrainian governments. Because of RUJ\u2019s independent and critical voice, they are facing attacks from the government. New laws have been introduced to bring the few remaining independent media and internet portals under state control.<\/p>\n

Moscow is not a media desert with only pro-government media. \u00ab\u00a0In my country, there are still many small oases of free media at local levels,\u00a0\u00bb said Nadezda Azhgihina, the RUJ spokeswoman. However, the journalists pay a high price for it. Dozens have been killed in the last twenty years.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0We go where there are problems,\u00a0\u00bb Ricardo Gutierrez, the EFJ General Secretary justified the choice of Moscow as the venue for the annual meeting. Gutierrez recalled the EFJ general meeting in Istanbul in 2009 when Turkey has put more than 40 journalists in prison because of their work as journalists.<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0462\"<\/a> Roman Berger<\/strong>, is a Swiss journalist and writer. He worked as a correspondent of the Tages Anzeiger<\/em> (Zurich) in Moscow and in Washington. He is also a delegate of the Swiss Journalists\u2019 Union, syndicom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

German version<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Moskau \u00fcberraschte<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Von Roman Berger *<\/em><\/p>\n

Der Delegierte aus Estland brachte es auf den Punkt: \u201eErst als ich nach Recherchen herausfand, dass die russische Journalisten Union Kreml – kritische Medien unterst\u00fctzt, war meine Gewerkschaft bereit , an der Jahresversammlung der Europ\u00e4ischen Journalisten F\u00f6deration (EJF) in Moskau teilzunehmen.\u201c So erkl\u00e4rte mir Meelis Suld, warum er nach Moskau gekommen sei. Der Beschluss der EJF, ihre Jahrestagung zum Thema \u201eJournalismus in Zeiten von Konflikten\u201c ausgerechnet in Moskau abzuhalten, hatte zahlreiche Gewerkschaften bewogen, aus Protest gegen Putins Politik in der Ukraine die Versammlung zu boykottieren. Auch gab es Fragen: Wie unabh\u00e4ngig ist die Journalisten Union in einem Land, in dem viele Gewerkschaften weiterhin \u201esowjetisch\u201c, also vom Staat abh\u00e4ngig sind und die Rechte der Arbeiter nicht vertreten k\u00f6nnen ?<\/p>\n

Doch die russische Journalisten Gewerkschaft (RUJ) \u00fcberraschte. So verurteilte sie in sch\u00e4rfster Form die \u201erasch schrumpfende Medienfreiheit in Russland\u201c. Neue Gesetze zielten darauf ab, die wenigen noch unabh\u00e4ngigen Medien und Internetportale unter staatliche Kontrolle zu bringen. Die RUJ verurteilte auch den Informationskrieg in Russland und der Ukraine. Wegen ihrer unabh\u00e4ngigen Haltung, so stellte die RUJ fest, werde sie von Regierungsmitgliedern attackiert.<\/p>\n

In Moskau konnten westeurop\u00e4ische Journalisten auch erfahren, dass in Russland nicht einfach eine vom Regime trocken gelegte Medien-W\u00fcste herrscht. \u201eIn meinem Land gibt es auf lokaler Ebene immer noch viele kleine Oasen von Glasnost (Offenheit),\u201c berichtet Nadezda Azhgihina, die Pressesprecherin von RUJ. Allerdings zahlen die Journalisten einen hohen Preis daf\u00fcr. Dutzende von ihnen wurden in den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren ermordet.<\/p>\n

\u201eWir gehen dorthin, wo es Probleme gibt,\u201c rechtfertigt Ricardo Gutierrez die Wahl Moskaus als Tagungsort. Der Generalsekret\u00e4r der EJF erinnert, dass vor einigen Jahren die Jahresversammlung in Istanbul stattgefunden hat. Im Nato-Land T\u00fcrkei befanden sich damals \u00fcber 40 Journalisten im Gef\u00e4ngnis, nur weil sie ihre journalistischen Pflichten erf\u00fcllten.<\/p>\n

Roman Berger<\/strong>, Delegierter der Schweizer Gewerkschaft Syndicom, war Korrespondent des \u201eTages Anzeigers\u201c (Z\u00fcrich) in Moskau und Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swiss journalist and writer, Roman Berger, recalled his journey to Moscow at the EFJ Annual Meeting and the struggle for journalists and their unions to be independent in a country like Russia where the state controls everything. \u201cMoscow is not a media desert with only pro-government media\u201d \u2013 this is Berger\u2019s conclusion. By Roman Berger   The delegate from Estonia has summed up the reason of his presence at the EFJ Annual Meeting: \u00ab\u00a0Only when I found out after my research that the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) is a critical organisation, my union was willing to send me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[66,147],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-efjam","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europeanjournalists.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}