We’ve been tardy with Issue 32 because your editor has been on extensive travel in Thailand and Indonesia, ending up in Sydney, teaching at the University of Sydney. There will be some continuing irregularity this fall as the editor oscillates between New York and Australia.
Now, several years after the Newsletter has been established, changes in the world suggest some possible new directions for the Newsletter. First, there are more sources of information, including OMRI, FSUmedia, the work of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Glasnost Defense Fund, the information provided by the European Institute on the Media, the Russian-American Press and Information Center and many others.
Perhaps, in a future issue, we may provide a directory of resources. Because of these multiple sources of data, the Newsletter is becoming more and more of a consolidator of information, an editor or gatherer of material that is otherwise available. This may be sufficient, but it gives us a bit of pause.
Second, the nature of the beast to be covered has changed. Undoubtedly, the transformation of government, the evolution of the rule of law, remains the main focus for this publication. But there must be more attention given to private law, particularly to business transactions involving the Post-Soviet media. The nature of ownership, the corporate issues, the antitrust and concentration questions ought to become more front and center. If possible, the Newsletter will include coverage of some issues involving telephony and the related technology developments. We are more and more concerned with the development of networks, with patterns of foreign investment, with changes in the nature of editorial responsibility.
Third, the Newsletter should be more regional, examining developments in Hungary, Poland, and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe instead of a narrower focus on the former Soviet Union.
Finally, if possible, the Newsletter needs to broaden its roster of contributors. We have been especially indebted to Professors Frances Foster and Peter Krug who have been generous with their scholarship. In this issue we feature work of several of the scholars from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University. We hope that the Newsletter will be a place where many scholars allow a preview of their work.
The Newsletter is now online, both in the Russian and the English editions (editions that are separately edited and quite different in content). The Newsletter is supported by and, in turn, supports the work of the Center for Media and Law and Policy Studies at Moscow State University.
My counterpart, Andrei Richter, is planning a series of small and large conferences at the Moscow Center and elsewhere. For example, he is planning a conference on defamation and libel law together with the Libel Defense Resource Center in New York.
Signs of the Times
ArticlesIn August, a group of Russian scholars from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University participated in a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the International Association of Mass Communications Research in Sydney, Australia. The participants included Dean Yassen Zassoursky, Associate Professor Svetlana Kolesnik, Associate Professor Elena Vartanovoa, and Andrei Richter, Director of the Center for Media Law and Policy Studies. We are pleased to present the abbreviated edited versions of the papers by Dean Zassoursky and Professors Varstanova and Kolesnik.
Freedom and Responsibility in the Russian Media