David Randall on Russia

Mr. David Randall, assistant editor of Independent on Sunday and author of a number of books, among them The Universal Journalist and The Great Reporters, held a guest lecture at University of Sheffield today.

I read The Universal Journalist last week. An interesting, entertaining and inspirational read, and one of the best books I`ve read on "How to be a Journalist".

Obviously, Mr. Randall has a long and impressive CV. I made note of his contribution in establishing English press in Russia in the mid-90s, working as managing editor of Independent Press, who at the time published Moscow Times and later St. Petersburg Times. The group has now merged with the Finnish-Danish Sanoma group. I`ve blogged about this earlier.

Mr. Randall shared some anecdotes on the rich culture and civil manner of Russian folk, which I appreciated, having travelled in Russia and having an interest in the country. When asked about the negative western perception, Mr. Randall said this is "serving the stereotype and conventional view" and further: "Unfortunately, this is what most journalists do in general".

He also pointed at the obvious advantage of not having a drunk (Jeltsin, in case you wondered) as President anymore, as well as the improving economy and decreasing corruption under Putin. Even though Putin had to pass the presidency over to Dmitry Medvedev in May this year due to legislation, Putin still very much controls Kremlin. Fair enough, but I`ll stay sceptic until I`ll stop reading stories about critical Russian journalists disappearing or turning up dead.