Press Release
Pavel Rumyantsev Thanks the Paul Klebnikov Fund for Journalism Fellowship
February 2007
First of all, I would like to thank Paul Klebnikov's Fund again for this very interesting, educative and useful internship. I enjoy it very much and now can say for sure that my work with the journalists of one of the most authoritative newspapers in the world will bring me a plenty of knowledge, experience and faith towards the ideals of my profession.
I am totally delighted by the bureau and people working there. The bureau is situated on the Garden Ring, in the center of Moscow, in the pretty office building. Its technical equipment is beyond praise, so journalists can properly and effectively perform their professional duties. Of course, it is not the most important part of our work, but it helps a lot, especially when you have to deal with people from all over the former Soviet Union, which are often available only by phone.
I am proud of working along with the real professionals of journalism here, in Moscow. Steven Lee Myers, the chief of the bureau, is the very good administrator and experienced journalist teaching and helping me a lot with the New York Times' reporting standards. It's very exciting and valuable for me to help Christopher Chivers and Andrew Cramer to dig for information for their various stories. And, of course, I am extremely grateful to Michael Schwirtz, with whom we work on daily press overviews and who is always ready to counsel me on any intricate point of journalistic work, and to all employees of the bureau which are always friendly and eager to support me.
The first thing which surprised and inspired me greatly was the "Ethical journalism" — code of conduct for the staff members and the contributors of the New York Times. I have never read such detailed and well-developed document concerning professional duties of journalist. When I had been working for Russian newspapers, I'd even never heard about the existence of similar rules at their editorial offices. To my mind, such regulations bring a lot of benefit in avoiding conflicts of interest and appearing of complicated situations, connected with different types of professional and ethical choice. Of course, too much restricting of journalist can negatively affect his reporting, but in the most part of the cases the reasonable following to these rules delivers from a plenty of possible problems.
As to the most valuable thing I learned, I discovered how strong the connection between accuracy and objectiveness of the newspaper and its reputation among readers is. Being "the newspaper of records," the New York Times is to be as honest and impartial as possible. Every fact, every name or initial of the source, every word should be handled precisely and properly. That's why double and even triple-checking are so much important for Times' journalists. The responsibility for their words and the honor of the newspaper always makes them correspond with the highest standards of journalism. And readers know they can rely on the information of the New York Times, so this fact stimulates journalists to do their best in reporting and researching. As you could remember, I believe that the main crisis of Russian journalism nowadays is connected with the lack of audience's faith towards media and journalists. The internship in the New York Times gave me the fine example of the mutual respect in relations between newspaper and its readers, and I am sure that such experience could be applied to Russian media reality as well.
Working for the New York Times encouraged and inspired me in my willingness to become the professional of the high class. However, the simple willingness is not enough. Best of journalism can be provided only by well-educated person, who is able to obtain information quickly and handle it properly. Therefore, theory, i.e. university education, and practice should join hands in process of journalist's professional growth. Moreover, reporter's competency depends on not only intensive digging of breaking news, but the advanced ability for in depth coverage and analysis as well. During my internship I ascertained again that a journalist is to have vast basic knowledge, however, practical experience also has incredible value for us. As Mr. Hegel wrote, "the unity and the struggle of contradictions." Thus, my personal goal in journalism hasn't changed: perfect quality of journalism, based on democratic and liberal ideals along with love to my country, honesty, thoughtful angle of coverage and full responsibility for all my words and actions. I am sure that in this crucial time of Russian and world's history only people of good will are able to face the challenges of forthcoming global epoch and journalism can do a lot for creating that epoch bright.
Finally, I would like to mention some interesting differences about Russian and American styles of journalism. Of course, we should keep in mind that being the foreign bureau of the NYT Moscow bureau shouldn't be compared with the Russian federal newspapers in full sense; there are always some specific features. But, to my mind, the main difference between foreign and Russian journalism is over-relying of our native reporters on official sources of information and various events, e. g. press conferences or government meetings, while the journalists, at least, of the New York Times Moscow bureau always take course of exclusive and more investigative reporting even in breaking news, in the same time never forgetting about impartiality and strongly referring to the sources. It doesn't mean that I consider Russian journalism in general like less professional; it has the great potential for development and improving, so I am sure that in certain political and social circumstances future of journalism in our country will be bright and it can be extremely beneficial for Russia and its people. I am just standing for diversification and upgrading of our media and their content, and the experience of every foreign media can be very helpful for our journalists and media researchers. That's why I am so happy being intern for the New York Times.
To conclude, I want to recommend future interns to be as curious and enterprising as possible. The journalism consists from two sides: permanent hard work and inspired fantasy, methodic researching and well-developed imagination, assembly line and outstanding creativity. Both of these sides are important for a real professional, and both of them can be studied very well at the Moscow bureau of the New York Times. Of course, discussing of my internship is a vast topic, and I would like to continue with it in my further accounts. But I enjoy my work there very much, and this is the most important thing.
Best wishes,
Pavel Rumyantsev
