Novaya Gazeta, Russia's last independent newspaper, will cease operations on Monday. The closure of this venerable and courageous publication—six of its employees died investigating corruption and exposing Russian war crimes in Chechnya in the early 2000s—provides an important lesson for any media outlet operating under a growing tyranny.
In short, don't try to play by its rules, writes Tom Masters, the former editor of Novaya Gazeta Europe, in a column for The New York Times.
After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin passed laws making the publication of any information that deviates from the official line about SVO punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This left the newspaper with a terrible choice: to stay in Russia, where it would not be able to objectively report on the most important event in the country, or to go into exile to cover the war from abroad, as about a dozen other independent Russian media outlets decided to do.
Novaya Gazeta asked its subscribers what they wanted. 94% voted for the newspaper to remain in Russia and work under military censorship. The paper soon became a shadow of its former self, with more than half of the staff and writers leaving the country for their own safety.
Dmitry Muratov said he did not want to abandon the newspaper's readers at a time when they need access to reliable information more than ever. However, by choosing to remain in a country where objective reporting was illegal, Novaya Gazeta seriously compromised its mission.
At the same time, with Muratov's blessing, many of the former employees gathered in Riga (Latvia) to found Novaya Gazeta Abrupa, a legally independent sister publication with Russian and English versions. As editor of the English version until earlier this year, I saw a sharp contrast between the two new papers.