Online Talks on Nov 10: Media Freedom in Russia

The next meeting of Online Talks on November 10 discusses media freedom in Russia today.

The collaboration between TaRC and the Russian Media Lab Network at the University of Helsinki – the lecture series Online Talks on Russian Media continues on 10 November (Tuesday) at 12:0013:30 on Zoom, with a topic “Media Freedom in Russia Today”. Please register your participation in order to get a link:

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/russianmedialab/2020/10/01/russian-media-lab-network-starts-a-new-season-online-talks-on-russian-media/

November’s Online Talks will follow up the themes of Freedom of Expression in Russia’s New Mediasphere. This volume, published last year by Routledge, assessed how the conditions for free speech are influenced by various factors. The volume focused on digital media and cross-media initiatives that bridge traditional and new media spheres. During the Online Talks on Russian Media, we will discuss the latest developments and how they resonate with the topics presented in volume.

Our speakers this time will be Dr Mariëlle Wijermars and Dr Jussi Lassila.

Dr Mariëlle Wijermars is an Assistant Professor in Cyber-Security and Politics at Maastricht University and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Helsinki. She conducts research on Russian Internet governance and its human rights implications and on technological innovation in Russian news media. Mariëlle is co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Russia Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, in press) and Freedom of Expression in Russia’s New Mediasphere ​(Routledge, 2020).

Dr Jussi Lassila is a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of Foreign Affairs (FIIA) where his research focuses on Russian domestic politics. He has published widely on topics related to identity politics, nationalism, populism and political communication in post-Soviet Russia, for instance, ʻAleksei Naval’nyi and Populist Re-ordering of Putin’s Stabilityʼ (Europe-Asia Studies, 2016) and ʻPutin as a Non-populist Autocratʼ (Russian Politics, 2018). He is author of the book The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia II: The Search for Distinctive Conformism in the Political Communication of Nashi, 2005–2009 (2012; 2nd revised ed. 2014 by ibidem Press/CUP) and one of the editors and a co-author of the book War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2017 by Palgrave Macmillan).

The discussion will be moderated by Dr Katja Lehtisaari from TaRC. Hope to see as many of you as possible on Zoom!