Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine last February and the subsequent Kremlin’s crackdown on free press, Russian regional media outlets have taken various paths, notes Anastasia Sechina, the coordinator of Chetvyorty Sector (“Fourth Sector”), a non-profit media initiative which offers support to Russian regional journalism.

While the majority keeps broadcasting the state position, many others ignore the war and deliver lifestyle-only content. Some, like the prominent Yekaterinburg-based publication, Znak.com, decided to shut down completely, she observes.

The remainder are publications that still try to find loopholes to keep their journalistic values by using euphemisms, focusing on the regional consequences of the war or being partially run from abroad to mitigate legal repercussions. In some cases, journalists dropped their old projects and created new brands that are more suitable for wartime, which sometimes lean more towards activism.

The Fix talked with journalists and editors of three regional media projects: Siberia-wide’s Tayga.info, Yekaterinburg’s It’s My City and Belgorod’s Pepel on their work in the last year.

Tayga.info: Staying in the region till the end

Russian authorities blocked Novosibirsk-based Tayga.info only a couple of days after the start of the invasion. This incident made advertisers (and most of the website’s revenue) run away and forced the media outlet to reduce its staff.

But that was not the biggest blow to the publication, notes one of its journalists, who asked not to be named. “The hardest thing, for me personally, was the forced powerlessness that came with self-censorship,” the journalist says. “We were forced to completely abandon coverage of the hostilities. We also started to censor some anti-war slogans – such as ‘No war’ – from rallies [we covered], since we could get a fine for such a quote.”

Since the introduction of the censorship laws, Tayga.info, which is currently most widely read on Telegram, does not write directly about the war, but it still reports about its consequences, either by reporting about the repercussions of the mobilisation or the impact of the economic crisis on Siberia. (The lead to a recent live feed gathering key news reads: “Tayga.info keeps following the consequences of events in Ukraine for Russian citizens. Suppliers and manufacturers are leaving the market, social platforms and media are being blocked. President Vladimir Putin announced ‘partial’ mobilisation”).

These days, the team consists of two to three regular authors and freelancers. Having such a small team means that they don’t have enough hands for all the stories they’d like to cover.

Despite the dangers, the team does not intend to leave Russia. “If at the beginning of March there was a desire to go to a safe place, now our work became a matter of principle – work on Tayga.info to the very end, either before the closure or before the political situation in the country changes [for the better],” our interlocutor says.

It’s My City: Going hybrid

The Yekaterinburg media outlet It’s My City, on the other hand, works in the “hybrid mode”: while most of the team members remain in their hometown, its editor-in-chief Ivan Rublyov (as the main person responsible for the published content) and some others opted to leave Russia.

After the authorities blocked their website at the end of March, which shattered It’s My City’s heavily ads-reliant revenue model, the publication was mainly saved by a club membership established in 2021, as well as the financial support of their readers, to the extent that they didn’t need to cut off jobs. The blocking, which came due to purportedly spreading “fakes” about the Russian armed forces, also became the main reason why the army now refuses to grant It’s My City accreditation for local military events, even though they still own a media licence.

Similarly to Tayga.info, they do not publish slogans such as “No war”. However, they’re not shy to use the word “war” in their reporting and they tend to put words such as “special operation” in quotes to reflect Russia’s recurring “newspeak” phenomenon, Rublyov notes. Contentwise, they focus on Yekaterinburg and the consequences of the war locally, partly because of the nature of their media project, but also because verifying information from the front would prove much more difficult – and riskier for the publication.

The war and the depressing news feed that comes with it have also brought another issue: burnout. Only last year, the outlet had a staff turnover of 60%. “But for now, we’re still working, we’re still writing,” Rublyov says in a hopeful tone, adding that they aim to expand their coverage in 2023 from Yekaterinburg to the whole region.

Pepel: New project rising from the ashes

Nikita Parmyonov is a journalist from Belgorod, the capital of one of the Russian regions bordering Ukraine. Last summer, he left Russia and soon after also his previous job at a local TV station.

“In October, I understood that censorship inside Russia linked to the war and in general to the authoritarianism in our country does not allow journalists remaining in Belgorod to do their work safely and efficiently. They had to turn a blind eye to absolutely most stories,” he says. He also noticed a schism among those opposing the war. “Those who stayed in the country say, ‘you don’t understand anything, you left the country, you don’t understand the context in which we work, you don’t understand what is happening in the region’, as if those who left don’t have the right to talk about it, while those who stayed, have the right, but due to censorship they don’t do anything,” he adds.

This is why he launched a Belgorod-focused media outlet for which he could take responsibility as the only publicly known person for all the content, becoming “the person who can be charged with a criminal case but who the authorities can’t put in jail,” facilitating those who remain in Russia to contribute to an “anti-war movement”.

The project for now operates on Telegram. Alongside a Telegram newsfeed, the project, called Pepel (Ashes), works on building a database of all people from the region who died because of the war by monitoring social media posts and even visiting cemeteries. “It is not only a media project, it’s also linked to activism. These two are very close together these days in our country,” Parmyonov claims.

This explains why it also runs volunteer legal and mental health helplines for anyone who suffered war-induced trauma, especially those who were mobilised to the war against their will, and why the project abstains from reporting about one thing: the exact positions of the Russian military. “We do not want to take responsibility for their death, although we fully understand that Russia is killing Ukrainian citizens at their expense,” Parmyonov says.

For now, Pepel operates on a completely volunteer basis, mainly for safety reasons. Parmyonov says the project is applying for international grants, which he considers the safest option for everyone involved.

The future: A big question mark

Is it better or worse to operate as an independent regional media outlet compared to a federal one when the state censors put every word under a microscope? It is difficult to say, and my interlocutors had various opinions.

On the one hand, it can be tough revenue-wise, since as a regional media outlet you very likely have a smaller potential pool of financial supporters. It is also very likely that it would be more difficult to become eligible for grants and that a ban will not cause a worldwide public outcry since you are not as well-known internationally. However, being smaller, and especially after being blocked, can mean the authorities see you as a minor threat compared to a bigger media outlet.

Unfortunately, everything related to Russia’s invasion and its complete suffocation of freedom of speech can only be a guess these days.

Source of the cover photo: https://jrnlst.ru/its-my-city-crowdfunding

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