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| THE RUSSIAN STATE |  | Category: Politics
Saturday, July 10th, 2004 @ 04:28 pm
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John has heard this schpiel by me before, so to everyone else, this is new...
I am sometimes disappointed in myself when I realize how little I know about the world outside of my country. I debate friends on their ignorance of the world around them, then suffer these same flaws myself. In particular, I was watching a PBS documentary the other day on the state of the press in Russia. I had always, as I guess many of us have, assumed that since the fall of communism, that Russia's political and social environment was much like our own here in America. Boy was I wrong.
In America we have the First Amendment. It's the fucking first, as in more important than the others. We are protected, by law, to have the ability to say whatever we want, in whatever forum will allow us, to speak our mind as we see it.
In free, democratic Russia, they have what's called Glasnost. Literally translated this means, "In a state of being public." After decades of soviet/communist rule, Gorbachev created an initiative to let information about the state public and let the world at large hear what was going on internally. The first and largest example of this doctrine was when the country publicly stated what happened at Chernobyl.
Glasnost is a major step forward for Russia and a wonderful change, but what people don't realize is that it is not a law, it is a doctrine. Our right to say what we want is protected by a court, the judicial branch of the government which is disconnected from the actual executive branch, that allows us and maintains this right for us. Glasnost is a doctrine that is not written in law, and is not protected by the Russian courts, which is lawfully and inexorably tied to the Russian government.
So, the situation as it is now, you can say what you want in the press, but it's probably better that you didn't. The courts won't protect you from the government, and organized crime, which has be prevalent in the government, and which is the target of many journalists, are not investigated for the crimes and murders they commit against journalists investigating their actions.
The strange thing is, as I write this and bounce from my computer to fridge to tv, I see on the news that the editor for Forbes magazine in Russia has just been assassinated by organized crime for his stance against the organization's ties to government. It is grave situation indeed.
I write this "article" for two reasons: 1) I don't like people arguing world politics in any forum without actual knowledge of what is going on in the world and 2), I think, even if you don't vote, being informed and educated actually skews public opinion due to conversations you get it and people around you that you influence with your lack of ignorance.
Thank you, and have an informed day.
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