Viddler

With Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations; Manana Aslamazyan, a media and television expert who has worked with Russian journalists for more than 15 years and is executive director of Internews Europe based in Paris and John Crowfoot, translator and compiler of Partial Justice, the recent IFJ report on deaths of journalists in Russia

Moderator: Geoff Meade, Sky News defence correspondent and former Moscow correspondent.

What is the reality for journalists working in Russia? The closure of a series of television stations and other outlets by Vladimir Putin during his presidency has been interpreted as a move to centralise the state and reassert its authority over the flow of information. With the majority of the oligarch owners of broadcast media firmly behind the government, Putin's image was carefully constructed and maintained.With Dmitry Medvedev now president, the government has continued the use of 'black PR’ tactics to attack and discredit opponents. What is the role of the independent journalists in a system which continues in the tradition of promoting the cult of the leader?Anna Politskaya who was shot dead in 2006 was one of 21 journalists Reporters Without Borders claims has been killed since March 2000. This event takes place nine years after the abduction of Gyorgy Gongadze, editor of news web site Ukrainska Pravda who was investigating corruption in the Ukrainian government. His body was later found in a ditch in a suburb of Kiyv.Join us for a discussion with eminent Russian media experts that will examine the reality of the Russian media and the possibilities for genuinely investigative and critical journalism.