Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine extinguished the remnants of freedom of speech left in the country. This has become the root reason why many independent journalists left Russia, forced to rethink the purpose and the financial models of the media outlets they used to work for.

The old Russian media landscape depended heavily on advertising revenue, but this model crumbled when Russian authorities started aggressively blocking websites and expanding their “foreign agents” lists. These measures frightened off advertisers. Given that being officially disliked by the state could jeopardise the security of their supporters, making crowdfunding a risky revenue source, exiled journalists opted to register their publications as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), building their businesses around donor money.

In the last months, several Russian journalists voiced that they consider NGO journalism as the only sensible reaction to the invasion and the disintegrated state of independent Russian journalism.

“I think that independent Russian journalism has no other option now but to operate as non-commercial projects,” notes Lola Tagayeva, founder of Verstka (“Layout”), an exclusives-only publication on Russian society launched about a month into the full-scale invasion. “The only other option is to get funds from political initiatives, but this is also a type of dependence. Media-NGOs are a golden mean of sorts, as long as our [and the donors’] values coincide and there is no pressure on the journalism side.”

Adapting to a new sector …

Operating as an abroad-based NGO has its ups- and downsides. As long as you can position your project as beneficial to civil society, it is quite straightforward to get foreign grants, our interlocutors note, meaning you don’t need to invest your own funds to launch your media initiative or a strong and visibly growing audience base that you would otherwise sell to advertisers as the reason for them to invest in your brand.

In turn, that means you have to know how to spin your project in a way suitable for the NGO sector. “It is often not the work that matters, but how you write your report,” says a media-NGO head who opts to remain anonymous. This is a skill and expertise many journalists who used to work in a commercial market still need to learn. “We have to learn how to work with it,” our interlocutor notes. It could for instance mean framing your initiatives as promoters of freedom of speech and access to information.

Also, often fundraising success relies on having personal contacts with the donors, which automatically gives an edge to some media initiatives over others.

… liabilities …

Operating as an NGO in Russia nowadays can be risky even for initiatives that seem apolitical at first glance. You might get away with an organisation that promotes something as innocuous as a vegetarian lifestyle but not much beyond that, Anastasia Sechina, the coordinator of Chetvyorty Sector (“Fourth Sector”), a non-profit media initiative offering support to Russian regional journalism.

Any misstep can be seen as a threat, making the media NGO end up on one of the numerous repressive governmental lists.

That means most media NGOs opt to register abroad in countries like Latvia or Czechia, subjecting them to new jurisdictions. This usually does not have a direct effect on their audience but it does have on their founders’ responsibilities and legal duties.

“The essence of the work does not change, but the accountability changes,” observes Ilya Krasilshchik, founder and CEO of Helpdesk Media, a Russian-language media outlet and support service launched after the start of the 2022 invasion. In Helpdesk’s case, it means it is accountable to the Latvian state.

A media NGO also has to account for the money received and spend it on the things it promised to spend it on, as opposed to commercial media outlets which could use its revenues more freely.

Speaking of accountability, several newly established Russian media NGOs, some of which were also contacted by The Fix Media, are hesitant to make their registration details public (or to even talk publicly about their NGO status), fearing it might diminish their impact or endanger their contributors’ safety. Yet they claim this lack of transparency does not affect their audiences, which seem not to put much importance on the administrative details of the media initiative they follow.

… and social responsibilities

If you operate as a media NGO, your role in society changes, too, Krasilshchik observes. “The first priority is to be useful,” he says. Showering your audience with global daily news is simply not enough. You have to leave a mark, an impact.

“Our task is not only to tell about someone in trouble but also to raise money for that person. Our task is not only to talk about mobilisation [to the Russian army] but also to help people avoid it. On the one hand, we have to inform, and on the other hand, to empower the audience with this information and offer help, either publicly or on request. We also see that our platforms, audience and skills, give us the opportunity to be the bridge between the audience and the protagonist of a story.”

Audience remains key

Indeed, accountability and reporting are affected when media outlets operate as NGO entities, but these are not substantial differences, Sechina notes. “In the end, everything still depends on how well the media interacts with its audience,” she says. “Without communication with an audience and its support, there will be no real impact.”

Source of the cover photo: https://unsplash.com/

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