London, UK (23 June 2010) – 'We are a showcase for the West, demonstrating that Russian has free speech.' Alexei Venediktov, editor in chief of renowned Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, talks candidly to Index on Censorship in an exclusive interview about the limits for press freedom.
Regarded as one of the last bastions for free speech in Russia, Ekho Moskvy has survived in a shrinking landscape for free expression. Venediktov discusses walking a fine line, dealing with death threats and the decline of investigative journalism. 'I'm a firefighter. And the most important thing is that I made the rules of the game clear to our shareholder Gazprom from the start: "Either I'm answerable for everything or it's goodbye."'
He admits that self-censorship is now the norm. 'The fact that people who were working freely in the 1990s now work in a way that is no longer free is the result of fear. People who came into the business after 2000 see the self-censorship, they understand that one shouldn't allow oneself to do it, but they don't think why. This shouldn't be happening.'
The interview with Alexei Venediktov, conducted by Maria Eismont, appears in the latest issue of Index on Censorship, 'Radio Redux', a special edition examining the critical role of radio for free expression worldwide: award-winning Peruvian journalist Carlos Flores Borja discusses his fight to keep his community radio station on air, radio drama director Shirazuddin Siddiqi talks about the programme the Taliban couldn't ban and Grant Goddard declares DAB radio already dead.
'Rules of Engagement' an interview with Alexdi Venediktov by Maria Eismont is published on 23rd June 2010 in Radio Redux – the latest issue of Index on Censorship (Vol.29 No.2 2010). A free copy of the article will be available for a limited period from http://www.indexoncensorship.org/.
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