The BBC hopes to challenge limits imposed on media outlets by getting nine million Russians to sign up. The Moscow office of the BBC World Service announced that it had signed an agreement with the country’s largest blog platform in an effort to reach a larger audience and oppose the government’s tightening control of local media. As of last week, the nine million Russians registered at the free blog LiveJournal can contribute to the BBC News with stories and commentaries. The platform’s new LiveReport channel is linked to the local version of the BBC World Service at www.bbcrussian.com.

A new kind of journalism. “Our users want to have more say in the kinds of stories we report, they want to comment on events and hear what others have to say,” says Sarah Gibson, Director of the BBC Russian Service. By inviting them to contribute articles, the BBC is responding to the demands of its public while at the same time securing an alternative source for news. In so doing, however, they are turning the traditional role of the journalist in society on its head. No longer limited to producing information, journalists can now receive it from others—from individuals whose role in the past has been the strictly passive one of receiving the news. In a way, this is just the natural development of what is already taking place on shows like “Vam Slovo” (“Let us know what you think!”), a mainstay of BBC Russian where listeners and readers are invited to suggest topics for future broadcasts. The joint project with LiveJournal is part of a process the BBC has begun throughout the world to open up to the public by changing their methods of communication. But in Russia the initiative has profound significance.

Government crackdown. Russia’s news and information media have come under constant fire during the decade-long presidency of Vladimir Putin and human rights concerns have become a major sticking point in the country’s relationship with the European Union. Just recently the Duma approved a new law under which newspapers, radio and television broadcasts can be suspended or shut down entirely if accused of slander or defamation. In the case of “diffusion of false information deliberately damaging to one’s honor or dignity,” journalists will be sanctioned with penalties comparable to those handed down for terrorism, extremism, and hate crimes. In this atmosphere, it becomes absolutely crucial for the BBC to ascertain the credibility of the stories it receives. “Bloggers can send anything they want to LiveReport,” says Sarah Gibson, “but before we select a piece for publication on www.bbc.russian, we want to be sure that it’s in line with our editorial policy. Usually we’ll look for other perspectives if it’s an opinion piece, and if it’s a news story we’ll verify the facts.” Still fresh on everyone’s minds here are the attacks on three employees of the BBC’s Russian office last November in Moscow just a few days before the presidential elections. One employee was attacked on the subway, another was mugged near his home and a third while on his way to work. The attacks capped off an unusually tense year in relations between Russia and Great Britain. Moscow had refused to extradite to London a businessman accused of having poisoned ex-KGB-agent Alexander Litvinenko. It accused the UK of interfering in national affairs and closed two British Council offices near the capital.

Mutual gain. The BBC enjoys a significant presence in Russia. The local service occupies three medium-wave (MW) radio frequencies in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Saint Petersburg. Gibson admits that “it would be great to be able to transmit our programs on FM throughout the entire country, but it’s difficult since a lot of stations have already been closed down.” So BBC Russian is betting on its listeners and trying to grow by getting them involved despite all the obstacles. The hope is that contributions from bloggers will bring to light stories and issues often overlooked by traditional journalism. And in the event that one of the new collaborator’s contributions turns out to be particularly useful, the BBC hasn’t ruled out the possibility of actually hiring him or her as a full-fledged employee.