USSR/X--THE SOVIET MEDIA UNDER EMERGENCY RULE Munich, 20 August 1991 (RI/VERA TOLZ) Summary: The second resolution of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR, issued on August 19, proclaimed a new media policy--the reimposition of harsh censorship and at least a temporary ban on the publication of many periodicals. The Emergency Committee nonetheless appears to exercise only shakey control of the mass media. Opposition to their actions, including their media policy, seems to be mounting. A crackdown on the mass media was high on the agenda of the group of eight hardliners who seized power in Moscow in the early morning of August 19. Announcing the group's media policy, acting president Gennadii Yanaev said the media bore much of the guilt for the USSR's "current chaos." So far, however, the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR has not been able to enforce the ban on outspoken media that it had planned. Resistance by journalists to the policies of the hardline group seems to be strong; it appears, moreover, to be growing. NEW MEDIA POLICY OUTLINED At 1735 on August 19, TASS and Radio Moscow-1 carried a list of the titles of the central newspapers, and newspapers published in Moscow city and region, whose publication is to be permitted by the Emergency Committee. At the same time, a temporary ban was declared on the publication of all other newspapers and periodicals. The publication of the following periodicals was approved: Trud, Rabochaya tribuna, Izvestia, Pravda, Krasnaya zvezda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Moskovskaya pravda, Leninskoe znamya, and Sel'skaya zhizn'. (With the exception of Trud and Izvestia, all these newspapers are published by the CPSU.) In future, it was announced, all periodicals published on a Union-wide basis and in the Moscow area would have to be approved by a special new body which the Emergency Committee would set up. The Emergency Committee justified these new regulations by reference to Article 4, point 14, of the USSR Law "On Legal Regime of the State of Emergency," saying that, under a state of emergency, the state organs of power and administration have the right to "impose control over the media." At a press conference in the evening of August 19, acting president Gennadii Yanaev was asked about the fate of all those periodicals whose publication the Emergency Committee had banned. Yanaev replied that the periodicals not mentioned in the above list would not automatically be closed. However, he went on, they would have to undergo a process of "re-registration." (Registration of all Soviet periodicals was carried out following the adoption of the USSR Law on the Press last year.) Yanaev refused to specify what the criteria for re-registration would now be, but there seems little doubt that they would be much tougher than those stipulated by the liberal press law, and that the ultimate aim of the Emergency Committee in requiring a process of re-registration would be to close down outspoken periodicals. Even before the Emergency Committee announced these new regulations, it had already moved to restrict the freedom of television and radio broadcasting. In the morning of August 19, Soviet Central TV announced that RSFSR TV's programming had been cancelled and that the RSFSR channel would henceforth carry not its own programs but those of Central TV. All other TV channels were also ordered to screen only Central TV broadcasts. Television programs throughout the morning of August 19 were devoted to classical music, a football match, and a ballet, interspersed every hour by a solemn-faced announcer reading out the first decrees and announcements of the Emergency Committee. From 1430 on August 19, the "Mayak" radio station frequency started to be used by Radio Moscow-1; "Mayak" returned to the airwaves on August 20, however. For its part, the radio station of the Russian Republic, Radio Rossii, began its broadcast at noon on August 19 without Radio Rossii's normal station identifier. Instead a literary program on the Russian writer, Fedor Dostoevsky, was announced. On August 19, the independent Moscow journalist Dmitrii Volchek informed RFE/RL that the military authorities had placed censors in the offices of independent newspapers; Volchek cited the popular periodicals Moskovsky komsomolets, Megapolis-express, and Kuranty. In the evening of August 19, a German correspondent of Moscow News told German TV that the weekly's office had been occupied by troops. He added that he had been instructed by the editorial board of Moscow News to try arranging the printing of the weekly in Germany. Also on August 19, a number of recently created independent radio stations in Moscow and Leningrad were reportedly surrounded by troops and ordered to stop broadcasting. Prominent among these stations was the outspoken "Ekho Moskvy." Information has also become available concerning a crackdown on the mass media in the Baltics. The TV and radio broadcasting center in Kaunas (Lithuania), which had been carrying news on the situation in the republic since the military crackdown in Vilnius in January, stopped broadcasting in the morning of August 19. In the evening of the same day, Radio Riga reported that the television center in the Latvian capital had been taken over by troops of the special security forces, OMON, and that TV broadcasts had been halted in the republic. WATERTIGHT CONTROL PROVES IMPOSSIBLE Despite these measures, the new authorities seem to be experiencing serious difficulties in their attempt to reintroduce tough censorship and control of the media. Opposition to the coup seems to be mounting among the Soviet population, and Soviet TV, radio, and newspaper journalists appear to be at the forefront In its main evening newscast on August 19, even Central Television's "Vremya" managed to give the impression that it supported Boris Yel'tsin and the democratic forces and opposed the coup. Noted for its generally conservative attitude, "Vremya" screened film of protest demonstrations in Moscow and Leningrad and interviewed citizens who had come to defend their democratically elected leaders. Moreover, "Vremya's" commentator indicated his sympathy for the protestors. Even a correspondent of Pravda who attended Yanaev's press conference--to say nothing of representatives of more liberal newspapers--posed his question in such a way as to inform the audience of Soviet radio and television about Yel'tsin's decree outlawing the coup and its organizers. There seems little doubt that this was done intentionally, for Central Television made no official announcement of Yel'tsin's move. Izvestia is among the central newspapers whose publication is to be allowed by the Emergency Committee. Nonetheless, it did not appear on August 20, RFE/RL was informed by an independent Moscow journalist. The journalist said that on August 19 typographers destroyed the type of the issue, which had already been set up, because it did not carry Yel'tsin's appeal to the citizens of Russia. When martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981, a total news blackout was imposed that lasted for three days. The situation in Moscow today could hardly be more different. Western correspondents are being allowed to operate relatively freely. (This echoes the situation in January of this year, when Western correspondents were not expelled from Lithuania in the wake of the military crackdown in Vilnius.) CNN and other Western TV companies have been able to show Western viewers up-to-the-minute film of the situation in the Moscow streets. (Particularly striking was film shown on August 19 of Yel'tsin standing on top of a tank and delivering a speech to the crowd gathered outside the headquarters of the RSFSR government.) Leading political figures and independent journalists in Moscow and other Soviet cities have been freely interviewed by RFE/RL. And RFE/RL monitors report that so far they have noticed no sign of any jamming of Western radios. The decision not to expel foreign journalists seems to be have been taken deliberately by the Emergency Committee in an effort to avoid open confrontation with Western countries. But the Emergency Committee's failure to enforce its ban on domestic periodicals is another matter, and suggests weakness on the part of the self-proclaimed leaders. The Emergency Committee, in short, seems to be having difficulty asserting control over events. On August 20, indeed, Moscow News was reportedly able to publish despite the ban. Western news agencies reported that the issue published that day carried an appeal by the widow of Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner, for mass protests against the coup. Also published on August 20 despite the ban were the outspoken Leningrad Komsomol newspaper, Smena, and the organ of the Leningrad Soviet, Nevskoe vremya. Leningrad's independent radio station, "Svobodnyi gorod," was also able to resume broadcasting on August 20, and has devoted itself to airing documents issued by the leadership of the RSFSR. Moreover, Leningrad TV has until now been controlled by people speaking in opposition to the coup. There were reports August 19 that OMON troops had occupied the Leningrad TV center but, later that evening, Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak and several other liberal local deputies were given broadcasting time. They called on soldiers to hand over to the city authorities all officers who had helped organize the illegal seizure of power. A number of republican leaders have spoken out against the media crackdown and announced measures aimed at neutralizing it. Among the demands which Boris Yel'tsin put today before USSR Supreme Soviet chairman Anatolii Lukyanov was one calling for the lifting of restrictions on all media on the territory of the RSFSR. Reports reached Munich today that the RSFSR Supreme Soviet is trying to set up its own radio station in the headquarters of the RSFSR government. In its turn, the government of Moldavia announced today that it will ban from Moldavian territory those nine central and Moscow newspapers whose publication has been sanctioned by the Emergency Committee. The Moldavian authorities added that newspapers published on the territory of Moldavia will be shut down if they carry any of the documents issued by the Emergency Committee in Moscow. CONCLUSION The situation in the Soviet media suggests that those who seized power in Moscow yesterday may have rather less power than they claim. Journalists constitute one of the largest pro-reform groups in the Soviet Union, and it is not surprising that they have immediately demonstrated readiness to defend the freedoms they obtained during the course of perestroika, and to resist the policies of the new authorities. It is of course too early to speculate about the eventual outcome of the coup. It is nonetheless worth mentioning that today's news encourages some optimism, since overt opposition to the new authorities seems to be gathering strength.