Ekaterina Glikman is one of the founders and the first deputy editor of Russian media in exile Novaya Gazeta Europe, an online platform launched in April 2022. She currently lives in Switzerland. Previously she worked for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta for over 20 years. This interview is taken from the 13th issue of Mediation, entitled ‘Structuring exiled journalism in a more authoritarian world’, which you can find here.
Novaya Gazeta was Russia’s largest independent media outlet for over 30 years and was one of the last surviving publications inside the country to hold the Kremlin to account. What drew you to work in exile?
Ekaterina Glikman: Seven Novaya Gazeta employees have been murdered for doing their jobs since Putin came to power, but even so, the newspaper kept going. After the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 decided by Putin and after he imposed military censorship in March 2022, press freedom no longer exists in Russia. Our logic is: if it’s not possible to provide Russians with truthful information being in Russia, then it must be done from abroad. People should not be left alone with propaganda. No one deserves that. At least half of the population is against war but they cannot express their opinion and they are represented nowhere. Independent journalism is their only voice and connection to real information, to the rest of the world.
What is it like reporting from outside, gaining access to reliable information and maintaining ties with your audience?
Many reporters have remained in Russia, even though they are in danger there. They work for us secretly. We hide their personalities using pseudonyms. We even hide them from our own team. Those reporters who are at greatest risk are known only to one or two members of our team. We try to protect our sources of information from Russia as much as possible. We also check documents and try to counter state disinformation with facts. I am very worried about my colleagues and informants in Russia. Each of them is facing years (and even decades) of imprisonment for collaborating with our media, as we have been labelled as an "undesirable organization", that is, criminals, in Russia. And those brave people who provide us with information from the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops are risking their lives.
Our aim is to reach Russian audiences with fact-based reporting, to counter the Kremlin’s censorship, propaganda, and disinformation. Our readers in Russia bypass blockades (naturally, our website is blocked!) using vpn services. We also use social media not yet blocked in Russia (such as Telegram and YouTube) to inform and raise awareness among Russians. And then there's a special example: in the last two years we have been doing newsletters for Russian prisoners and have earned a good reputation behind the bars. That's why we were the first media outlet to be able to tell the world the details of Alexei Navalny's death. In that distant colony in the Russian Arctic, there were also our readers, and they became our sources of information.
What are the psychological effects of reporting in exile?
Most of our journalists left the country overnight. Since then, they have mostly been covering the war in Ukraine and repression in Russia seven days a week, hardly ever leaving the newsroom. Our 70 reporters are very young and have been living in exile for two years, with no prospect of returning to Russia. They don’t know when they may see their relatives and parents again, so it is very hard for them. Recognizing their psychological challenges is just as crucial as ensuring their physical safety.
Digital surveillance of journalists in exile is becoming alarming. How do you deal with this situation?
There are two aspects here. We have already become used to facing threats from the Russian authorities. Unfortunately, western intelligence services are not lagging behind our state either: Pegasus spyware was found on the devices of journalists in exile. The second fact turned us into healthy sceptics.