The Dream of Public Television and the Reality of Russian Media

At a recent Kennan Institute talk, Mikhail Fedotov, Vice President, INDEM Foundation, and Fulbright-Kennan Institute Research Scholar, Kennan Institute, discussed the potential for the development of public television and radio in Russia. He argued that the state media outlets that exist in Russia today are very different from public broadcasting in the United States: American public broadcasting stations function independently as elements of civil society with partial funding from the government, whereas Russian state television is run directly by the state. Although he maintained that Russian state media could be transformed into Western-style public television, he believes that the political will to do so is currently absent.

Fedotov compared the mission statements of America's PBS and the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR). He noted that Russian state media's mandate is to serve the interests of the state and provide "support for the internal and foreign policies of the Russian Federation," while the stated mission of PBS is to build social capital and provide viewers with information. He argued that public and state television are also very different in structure. PBS and NPR are decentralized organizations comprised of locally managed stations supervised by a board of directors, while RTR is controlled by a director general appointed by the president of Russia.

Fedotov also noted that RTR and U.S. public broadcasting have different sources of funding, although he cautioned that budget data for RTR can only be approximated because the company does not report on its income sources. U.S. public broadcasting stations are funded by a diverse combination of government sources and private donors; RTR relies on advertisements, state funds, and bank credits. Fedotov contended that U.S. public broadcasting makes better use of its funds than does RTR: PBS devotes 70 percent of its budget to programming, RTR devotes less than 1 percent.

According to Fedotov, the Russian government uses RTR as part of its political strategy. He noted that RTR has consistently received extra funding during election years. He also observed that in recent years, RTR news programs have devoted considerable time to positive coverage of the President and the party of power, a smaller amount of time to negative coverage of the Communist Party, and very little time to any other party. Fedotov stated that the government's control of RTR is even more disturbing in light of recent state attacks on independent media outlets. There are very few media outlets remaining that are not controlled directly by RTR or indirectly through another state entity.

Fedotov concluded by detailing several attempts to introduce public television in Russia. He argued that most of the legal, material, and social foundations that have allowed public broadcasting to develop in the U.S. also exist in Russia today. According to Fedotov, in order to have public television, Russia needs a law similar to the U.S. Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The draft of such a law was submitted by the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko parties in 2002, but so far it has gone nowhere. Fedotov noted that many other attempts to introduce some aspects of public television to Russia have all been blocked by the state. He warned that the Russian government is unwilling to give up its control of the media and allow truly independent public broadcasting.