(http://books.google.com/books?id=j7gBESqTciYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)"]FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Freedom of the press is guaranteed by Art. 50 of the Soviet Constitution on the same grounds as freedom of speech, i.e. “in accordance with the interests of the people and in order to strengthen and develop the socialist system”. This means that the Party as the vanguard of the working people controls the whole press. Freedom of the press was abolished as early as 9 November 1917, by the Decree on the Press, which was directed against the “bourgeois” press and authorized the Council of People’s Commissars to ban press organs hostile to Soviet power. In the ensuing period, all printing offices and stocks of paper were nationalized and the press became a Party and government monopoly.
The Soviet press is an important means of implementing the will of the Party speaking to the masses immediately and continuously. The main functions of the press used to be defined in more or less the same terms. Probably the most authoritative and still valid statement is included in a resolution of the June 1963 plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the main functions are listed as follows: formation of Marxist-Leninist Weltanschauung and communist morals in Soviet people; systematically and profoundly throwing light on the Party’s and the whole Soviet people’s work for the fulfillment of the economic plans, for the increase of labor productivity, for the improvement of the Party direction of production, and on the problems of cultural construction; unfolding sharp and principled self-criticism directed against indolence, bureaucratism, waste, idleness, and other anti-social phenomena, and popularizing good examples. It can be assumed that the Soviet press has to fulfill three basic functions: 1) agitation and propaganda, i.e. ideological indoctrination of the people, 2) mass organization, i.e. mobilization of the people in order to realize the economic and socio-political goals set by the Party, 3) criticism and control, i.e. pointing at shortcomings which the Party is interested in eliminating.
In 1981 there were 8172 newspapers and 5195 periodicals with a total one-issue circulation of 178.3 million and 194.6 million copies respectively in the Soviet Union. In considering the structure of the press, one may distinguish between three groups of publishers and five territorial levels. According to the former view-point there is the Party press, the government press, and the press of the social organizations. The territorial structure shows the following picture: 1) 31 central newspapers (82 million), 2) 160 republican newspapers (26 million), 3) 426 regional (territory, province, autonomous republic, and province) newspapers (29.1 million), 4) 3,714 local (city, district) newspapers (35.1 million), 5) 3,841 factory and kolkhoz newspapers (6.1 million). As the above figures indicate, the central papers constitute the most important grouping, for they are managed by the top organs of the Party, governments, and social organizations, and consequently, derive their leading authoritative and official character from the top of a highly centralized power pyramid. The most prominent newspapers are Pravda (Party, 10.7 million), Isvestiia (Government, 6.9 million), Komsomol’skaia Pravda (Komsomol, 10 million), Sel’skaia Zhizn’ (Party, 9.9 million), Trud (Trade Unions, 12.9 million), Sovetskaia Rossiia (Party, 3 million), and Krasnaia Zvezda (Ministry of Defense).
The party’s total grip over the press is ensured by several means. First of all, in matters of finance and production facilities, the press is absolutely dependent on the Party. The newspapers are staffed with selected and politically trained, reliable journalists. Most of them are Party members who are bound by Party discipline to carry out Party instructions. Apart from instructions concerning certain aspects of everyday work, there are many decisions taken by the top Party organs relating to the press’s fundamental political tasks. The chief directing and supervisory body is the Propaganda department of the Central Committee’s secretariat where there are sections established for the central, regional, and local press. Corresponding departments function on every echelon of the Party apparatus. The press sections approve the “working” plans of the newspapers and can interfere on any occasion. The process of indirect censorship runs along the indicated lines. The first stage is the “self-censorship” of every journalist who would risk his career if he committed political errors. If he has doubts, he consults his editor or editor-in-chief. Should he be unable to decide the matter himself, he refers to the competent press section, and so on even up to the Politburo or the Secretary-General. In some cases the process is reversed by the issuing of instructions to the effect that certain matters cannot be handled without prior approval by Party organs. Furthermore, the important news is supplied by the official news agency TASS. This system of control is so overwhelming and, at the same time, so flexible that the importance of direct censorship has been constantly diminished. The special government censoring organ, Glavlit, was established in the early 1920s and was in full operation during the Stalin era. Since then, it was reorganized as “Main Administration for the Defense of State Secrets in the Press” and its role has been restricted to supervising the press from the standpoints of state secrets. Apart from that, there are at least four specialized censorship agencies (military, KGB, nuclear, and space affairs).
See also FREEDOM OF SPEECH; PRESS; SAMIZDAT; SECURITY
G. Brunner
