Morbyd
Moderator
By robust I mean it is growing, active, investigative, sometimes aggressive and generally not unlike the media you find in other developed countries. There are quite a few media groups as well, so the competition is quite intense.I do not know how you define 'robust media' - however in any interpretation, the removal of the basic press freedom of critical commentary on our/your/their rulers surely is certainly not it?
As for criticism of the powers that be, you've got to put it in the context of the 1990s when the media was used as a battering ram by various forces to shape what was (and perhaps still is) a fragile post-Soviet transitional period.
Of course, Putin took it too far the other way in his drive to restore order. And the deaths and/or harassment of a handfull of reporters covering the "wrong" subjects is reprehensible (whether those events be government-caused or private sector) and the government should account for them.
It's wrong to think that all the newspapers in town just reprint the Kremlin circular every day! But that's the impression you get if you read about it in the Western press.
And how the hell did we get this far off topic? MARK!