Bitter-Sweet Irish Times Coverage of Russia.

international | arts and media | opinion/analysis

Wednesday February 23, 2005 14:48

by Maria

mariaoleinik at hotmail dot com

It may sound banal and in “what else did you expect” mode, but since I started reading the Irish Times, I have not read a single positive and objective article on Russia.

The exception would be the Irish Times issues with accounts of the Beslan tragedy. But even then inconsistency with the usage of words “terrorist” and “insurgent” was baffling. I got the impression that “terrorist” was being used only when it was beneficial to one party in its attempts to discredit the other.
I am not trying to present Russia as the best country in the world, flawless in its politics and actions. Not at all, it is far from it, like any other state. But what I am looking for is an objective, detailed and convincing account of events that take place in Russia. Isn’t it what the whole world wants Russia to be? Objective and consistent with international freedom of speech laws. If so, why can’t the rest of the world do the same? Here again comes a notion of when it is in one party’s interest, then it’s a different story. The problem is people tend to believe or at least partially believe in what they read, especially in the national newspaper.
However, I must admit, I do enjoy reading the Irish Times, but not when it comes to Russia. A [particular] journalist who writes for the IT when referring to the current Russian president, fails (intentionally or not, I would not know) to call him “President”, he prefers “former KGB spy”. KGB was not a mere spy agency, it was more than that, and labelling Mr. Putin in a gossipy press style is definitely not up to Irish Times standards.
What motivated me to write this piece was a short and nicely written article in the Irish Times today on Mr. Ahern’s speech in Brussels. I have nothing against the article itself, but the extracts from theTaoiseach’s speech and the title angered me. Every EU country together with the US is warning Russia like a silly immature baby. This judgement does not take into account that not every aspect of so-called democracy applies to every single country around the world. Russia needs a completely different ruling system essentially because it is NOT a European country and does not need to be one. In this case, to contradict Mr. Bush, Russia does not embrace “those very same values that America embraces” and it does not need to be preached on ideology that most of EU leaders are not good at themselves.
To conclude, I’ll keep a close look at what Irish Times is going to write on ex-KGB-spy-father of democracy [Bush] “rendez-vous” in Bratislava tomorrow.

23rd of February is a national holiday in Russia praising soldiers that were fighting for the country throughout numerous wars.