Subnational Journalistic Resistance Practices within the Russian Federation:  How Journalists in Chechnya and Dagestan Negotiate Their Roles, Rights, and Freedom

Rodina, Elena

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-yw1w-5j93

Work

Subnational Journalistic Resistance Practices within the Russian Federation: How Journalists in Chechnya and Dagestan Negotiate Their Roles, Rights, and Freedom

Public

Download PDF

Drawing from the data I collected through nine months (between 2014 to 2017) of participant observations, 120 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and archival work, the project explores the tactics that Chechen and Dagestani journalists utilize to resist state pressure and circumvent state-imposed censorship. Specifically, I explicate how these regional journalists in Russia employ creative resistance techniques and establish three distinct forms of resistance: textual, behavioral, and conceptual. This research approaches studying journalistic agency in Russia by incorporating resistance theory into media analysis, with a particular focus on everyday resistance expressed through creative practices (De Certeau) and infrapolitics (James Scott). This focus allows to delineate subversive practices on a micro-level, and to reveal patterns of resistance not otherwise visible. Analyzing journalism in Chechnya and Dagestan through the prism of daily resistance, this work demonstrates how the intensity of local-level state pressure influences the type of tactics journalists use. Additionally, it establishes a historical context for these tactics, uncovering resistance practices that journalists utilized in the Soviet era. While previous studies of journalistic descent in Soviet times treated these instances pointilistically, this research identifies patterns and linkages within journalistic resistance practices both in the Soviet era and in Russia today. In Chechnya, this work illuminates that the overarching theme of journalistic resistance practices is avoidance. Under the autocratic leader Ramzan Kadyrov, any open critique of the state can result in losing one’s job, freedom, or even life. Therefore, on a textual level, journalists rely on practices that help them deeply conceal their critiques; these include writing between the lines, avoiding mentioning names, using passive constructions and Aesopian language. Their behavioral tactics are expressed through forming “safe spaces,” similar to the well-known gathering place of Soviet-era dissidents: the kitchen. On a conceptual level, state-employed journalists in Chechnya adjust their professional aspirations. Not being able to publish truthful information, they shift their focus to directly helping people in need, those who come to journalists for help often see them as their last resort. This re-conceptualization of goals allows journalists to continue doing work that is meaningful to them despite their role in disseminating state propaganda. Unlike in Chechnya, my research in Dagestan shows that journalists often choose direct confrontations rather than avoidance. Due to the lack of one dominating power center, local journalists enjoy a relatively high level of freedom. On a textual level, they often push state-imposed limits by using irony and thinly veiled satire. One of the main challenges for independent Dagestani journalists is the lack of funding. Therefore, the most common behavioral-level technique is “working for both camps:” while working on a freelance basis for low-paying (or non-paying) independent media outlets which allow them to practice their political and creative freedoms, they simultaneously maintain employment with a stable salary at state outlets where their freedoms are highly limited. I argue that by using state’s money to fund their ability to work for the independent media, they are subverting the state’s power to control their production process. On the conceptual level, Dagestani journalists often enter into open debates with power-holders, thus shifting their professional goals from that of informing to that of actively opposing the state, blurring the lines between journalism and political activism.

Creator