Lead supervisor:
Dr Jennifer G. Mathers 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr James Vaughan
Start date: October 2024 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Politics, International Relations and Global Language Based Area Studies
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Independent Media
The Russian Media, 1991 to the present day: From Freedom of Speech to Enemies of the State
Central Research Question: How did Russia acquire, and then lose, its free and independent media?
This thesis addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time: threats to independent media across the world represent a fundamental challenge to democracy, civil society and freedom of speech.
In the context of pressure on independent journalism globally, this project seeks to address these challenges through an original contribution to understanding the rise and fall of independent media in Russia.
By exploring how Russia acquired and then lost its independent media, two further questions emerge:
- How might Russian regain its independent media?
- What does the Russian case tell us about the future of independent media globally?
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, almost all independent media outlets in Russia have shut down, been forced to close or have left the country and now operate in exile.
This project will reconstruct the recent history of independent media in Russia. It will hypothesise that pressure from state authorities on the owners of independent media organisations played as much a part in their demise as pressure on editors and journalists.
Existing literature on the topic has focused on outward signs of pressure on journalists, such as prosecutions and inclusions on blacklists; my hypothesis holds that an equal role was played by behind-the-scenes pressure applied on the proprietors of media outlets, often via their business interests.
At a time when media freedoms are being eroded in many parts of the world, understanding what happened in Russia will provide warnings for media organisations facing a similar threat.