WORLD

There is tremendous transformation taking place in
the Soviet media and information services that is so
rapid, and so profound, that it sometimes seems difficult
to recognize the same Soviet newspaper from one edi-
tion to the next.

The process known as glasnost (openness) has begun
to take root, and creative journalists, editors and politi-
cal writers are almost daily developing it.

In theory, glasnost means that all questions of social
importance should be open to full public scrutiny and
discussion, says Vladimir Brodetsky, foreign policy
editor of Moscow News, the crusading tabloid that ap-
pears in Russian and four other languages each week. To
facilitate this process, says Brodetsky, the media needs
to fearlessly reflect social reality with unerring accuracy,
and all mythologies, apologies and evasions must be
banished forever from the public realm.

Working out glasnost in practice, however, has pro-
duced a number of shocks. Many people have been
shaken to learn the extent of such problems as drug
addiction, prostitution, official corruption and youth
cynicism. Political debate, which is increasingly found in
the pages of daily papers and on television, also upsets
some people who have been all too comfortable with the
image of unanimity and smooth, effortless socialist
development which the Soviet press often projected in
the past.

This is not to say that tough criticism or hard self-
examination were unheard of before glasnost. In fact,
Soviet journalists are by nature campaigners, and have
never accepted the Western view that a reporter should
be (ideally) a neutral transmission belt for news.”

‘““We have always felt ourselves to be fighters for
ideas,”” says Brodetsky. ‘We have the responsibility not
only to define what is wrong, but to advocate positive
change. Soviet journalists have consistently taken this as
their role.”

However, he admits, that role was in the past often
pursued in a formal way: the press was obliged to reflect

a ‘‘social consensus” that often tended to eclipse legiti-

represented in our press,”” notes Brodetsky. ‘‘But we
now realize that this did not serve the cause of social
progress at all.

““If people do not know clearly and in detail what the
problems are, and if they are not aware of their legitimate

‘*Usually the two sides in any debate were not equally

Reporting glasnost:
Shocks and debate

From Moscow

a
Fred Weir

choices, they will be unable to fight effectively for
change,”’ he says. ‘Journalists have the responsibility to
get as much information as possible. We also need to be
more critical of official statements, and have a role in
raising questions before officials do. That’s the part our
press is striving to play.”

Brodetsky’s paper, Moscow News, has delivered
more than its share of glasnost shocks to Soviet readers.
Its hard-hitting news articles, innovative analysis pieces
and sharp debate features are among the most widely
discussed, and the 250,000 weekly copies of its Russian-
language edition are snapped up virtually the moment
they hit the newsstands.

Moscow News has spearheaded the practice of invit-
ing Western journalists and even government figures to
express their views in its pages. During the debate over
the Soviet nuclear testing moratorium last December,
for instance, it gave a half-page to Richard Pipes, a
hard-line former member of Reagan’s National Security
Council, to present the arguments against a test ban.

More recently, it gave a platform to Charles Wick,
director of the United States Information Agency — the
propaganda arms of the U.S. government — to state his
case that the Soviet Union is an unchangeable totalita-
rian society.

“‘We do not publish these things because we have any
sympathy for the ideas they express,”’ says Brodetsky,
“but quite the opposite. We want our people to know
exactly what these arguments are. We have no fear of
this. And the best way to ensure this is to reproduce them
in full. We also allow our political commentators equal
space to analyze them and reply to them.”’

Moscow News created a major stir late last month
when it printed verbatim, a letter written by 10 former
Soviet dissidents who have emigrated to the West. The
letter, which declared glasnost a fraud and restructuring
a Soviet propaganda ploy, has been widely published in
the Western press, where it has been given much favora-
ble attention.

Seen So Usp 1 tind /
Moscow News has spearheaded the practice of inviting
Western journalists and even government figures to ex”
press their views.

‘‘We were struck by one particular phrase in this
otherwise unremarkable piece, which said: “ . . . the pub-
lication of this letter in the Soviet press would be the
most convincing proof of the sincerity of pronounce
ments about glasnost’,’’ Brodetsky says. ““They wert
obviously quite certain that their arguments wert
devastating, and that we wouldn’t dare permit it to be
seen by the Soviet public. But now we’ve reprinted it, S0
what next?’

The publication of this dissident manifesto is, quite
literally, the talk of the town; Moscow News has Tr
ceived a flood of mail. ‘‘We will continue this debate,
says Brodetsky, ‘‘and we will publish as many of oul
readers’ comments as possible because it is only throug!
a process such as this that we can elaborate in practice
the principles of glasnost and the role of our press ip
these changing times.”

And what are Soviet readers saying about the lettef
itself? The responses are varied, says Brodetsky, but Hy
general few seem much impressed by its substance. Oné
reader, Grigory Baklanov, put it this way. “‘It’s good
that Moscow News reprinted that letter written by 10
former Soviet citizens . . . in the past people always used
to wonder: we would express our indignation agains!
such things. But why were we ourselves not permitted t0
see these, so to speak, objects of our indignation? Didn't
they think we could understand and sort things out fol

ourselves? ...
‘*Well, now the letter has been published. Not mat

sake of providing proofs, of course. Such is the spirit 0
our time, of the changes we are affecting. And we can
what the authors of this letter were pinning their hope’
on. What they hoped for was that their letter would no!
‘be published in the USSR, and each of their word:
betrays this calculation . .. no commentary could say
much as the authors have said about themselves.”’

And now it is becoming reasonable to point out that”

the spectrum of serious political debate and discussiO
that is growing within the Soviet media is far broader an
more profound than that typically found on the pages

Le Devoir, the Toronto Star, the Globe & Mail or the
Vancouver Sun.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The
recent cases of one transnational using
the Caribbean island state of St. Lucia to
ship arms to subversive elements in An-
gola and Nicaragua and another dumping
dangerous chemicals in Guyana causing
deaths, further underscores the need of
developing countries to enact and strictly
enforce codes of conduct to control the
operations of these large firms in the

Shady firms — covert

From the Caribbean |

operations

as kickbacks for permitting shipment
through the island airport of no less a
item than anti-tank missiles and othe!
weaponry to the discredited UNITA
gangs in Angola. §

According to investigative reports
U.S. and other publications, a shady!
privately-owned firm called St. Luci
Airways on several occasions in 190°

used Boeing 707 and C-130 aircraft # ©

countries concerned.

The most serious of the latest overt
examples of how corporations use
developing countries in the Caribbean
and elsewhere took place in Guyana last
month.

All hell broke loose in Ministry of
Health offices when an increasing
number of Guyanese in rural areas began
complaining of poisoning from an un-
known substance. The culprit was soon
found: the deadly thallium sulphate, an
odorless, tasteless rodentcide, imported
by the People’s National Congress-
controlled state body, Guysuco, for use
in agriculture. The deadly poison, ban-
ned in North America and several other
countries for over two decades, had ap-
parently found its way into the food
chain.

The Opposition People’s Progressive
Party (PPP), led by Dr. Cheddi Jagan,
charged that the cavalier use of the chem-
ical and it being allowed in the country in
the first place, had resulted in at least 13
deaths in 1985 and 16 last year, officially
recorded. Hundreds of Guyanese have

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 15, 1987

been tested so far this year with 102 turn-
ing out positive.

The PPP also charged that the ruling

“PNC administration of Prime Minister
Hamilton Green have been virtually run-
ning around like chickens with their
heads cut off in terms of treatment and
testing. PPP MP Janet Jagan, whose
party had long called for action on the
deaths from poison and more control
over the foreign firms selling such chemi-
cals to the government, referred to one
case back in 1985 where health authori-
ties were facing bare shelves when they
searched for the antidote Prussian blue
for the poison victims. Three people died
at that time.

One of the personages who refused to
travel to Guyana was noted Sri Lanka-
born Brooklyn College academic Profes-
sor A.W. Singham. In an interview with
the Tribune in Barbados where he lec-
tured on the Non-Aligned Movement,
political science Professor Singham, who
taught for several years during the 1960s
at the University of the West Indies,
placed the blame for the poisonings on

the overseas corporations which sup-
plied the substance.

Dr. Singham called for a code of con-
duct to regulate the operations of such
firms. He also referred to the need for
research facilities. ‘‘The most important
thing from our point of view is the neces-
sity of developing research organizations
which can test these chemicals. They are
in effect dumped on our people and
society,’’ he said, adding that corpora-
tions in most of the developing world
operate ‘‘above the law of the land.”

A few hundred miles due north from
Guyana, up the chain of the eastern
Caribbean islands is St. Lucia, a typical
West Indies island whose 120,000 people
in the main eke out a living in the banana
plantations and in the tourist sector.
Some Canadians would know the island
when visiting the region on vacation.

However, away from the beaches and
hotels, some people in high places appear
to have intentions other than building an
economy where islanders might live bet-
ter lives. These big shots have their
hands in quite a few little schemes, such

transport arms from Kelly Air Fore
base in Texas, through St. Lucia and
Cape Verde Islands to Zaire, then on !
UNITA.

In 1984, the St. Lucia government 0!
Prime Minister John Compton was 1
formed that the company, owned by ?
West German corporation, was suspect
ed by U.S. authorities of gun-running !
contras in Nicaragua. A not-unexpecte?
twist in the whole can of worms whi¢
opened last month, were revelations th@
U.S. National Security adviser Robe
McFarlane had utilized St. Lucia Al
ways to fly him to Iran as part of the now
notorious Reagan/CIA arms-fot
hostages affair.

The St. Lucian government has turned

a deaf ear to demands from oppositio®
forces like the Revolutionary Worke®
League and Progressive Labor Party fo!
an independent inquiry into the scandal: |

So far, the government, which wil
shortly be facing the electorate, has onl
ordered the 11-year-old airline to droP
the words ‘St. Lucia’’ from its compa®
name.

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