Media mogul Lebedev warns of threats to freedom
Alexander Lebedev, the newspaper proprietor, said that he would continue to fight corruption and threats to press freedom (Source: Society of Editors)
Speaking to the Society of Editors' annual conference in Glasgow, Lebedev - owner of The Independent, the Evening Standard and the Russian publication Novaya Gazeta - said that a free press was vital in stopping corruption.
"I want to invest further in ways to stop corruption on a global scale. The millions of bank accounts held by shady people in sunny places are not the right way for our countries to run their economies," the media mogul said.
"We need transparency and for the international community of journalists to be able to work together, to report on the billions of dollars that are hidden and often stolen."
While he said that conditions in Russia had begun to change "generally for the better", Lebedev warned that the country continued to fall short on matters of public accountability and transparency. He pointedly opened his address by referring to an incident a fortnight ago in which a bank that he owns was raided by masked and armed police.
"It is very good not to be surrounded by men with semi-automatic guns wearing balaclavas, but then thankfully this is Scotland, the land of Enlightenment," he said.
He added that journalists who challenged established authorities continued to face intimidation and threats to their lives.
"It was no accident that I was unable to be in London on the day I bought the Evening Standard; I was attending a funeral of three colleagues [at Novaya Gazeta] who were murdered simply for doing their job."
Lebedev made his remarks on the same day that hundreds of Muscovites rallied in Russia's capital, protesting against the brutal bashings of the journalist Oleg Kashin and the forestry activist Konstantin Fetisov earlier this month. Kashin remains in hospital after nearly being beaten to death.
"We need to be inventive, but, above all else, we need to guard our right to express views, expose facts and to keep journalists able to do what they do best: shining lights in unwelcome places and making the most powerful accountable to the public," Lebedev said in closing out his speech.
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