Vremia: Compliance and Complicity

Abstract

In the period of our study, Russia’s Channel 1, as an N(S)B, showed many similarities with BBC 1 and France 2 in their roles as PSBs, but also a range of distinctive differences. Like the British and French broadcasters, Channel 1 had the duty of representing the nation to itself in terms of values, institutions and practices. However, those values, institutions and practices did not always coincide with the types common to West European democracies. While the BBC and France 2, though not identical to each other, had to balance their respective statutory requirements of impartiality or neutrality, accuracy and fairness against an implicit assumption that they should remain within the conventions and norms of the established political and social order in their respective countries, they were not directly at the service of the government in power at any given time, although they could be subjected to pressure. Channel 1 operated on a somewhat similar basis to the old ORTF in France under De Gaulle. It was not a purely propagandistic operation on Nazi or Soviet lines, but it was closely tied to the state’s direction as a conduit of political communication from the Kremlin to the Russian public.