Independent Russian media grant anonymity to authors and sources. How do they retain trust?

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was promptly followed by draconian censorship laws which forced many anti-war Russian journalists to flee their homeland. 

In the last year and a half, many Russian media outlets - at least partly - relocated their operations abroad, seeing it as the only way to keep reporting about Russia’s aggression without facing actual persecution. However, most of their journalists are still Russian; they have Russian relatives and are sometimes forced to visit Russia, putting themselves and their families at risk. They often also talk to sources who are based in Russia, which can make the latter end up in problems for cooperating with a potentially “hostile” organisation.

This is why most anti-Kremlin, anti-war Russian media outlets have wrapped themselves into several layers of anonymity, a gesture which might lead to doubts among their supporters and potential sources. How do they retain trust while lacking transparency in its team members, base, reporting?

To answer this question, The Fix talked to three Russian media outlets: 7x7, a media outlet that has been covering Russian regions for more than a decade, the human rights outlet AvtoZak, and Helpdesk Media, a new media outlet and support service launched after the start of the 2022 invasion.

These are four key elements they rely on, in various extents, to keep a solid relationship with their audience:

Most members of 7x7’s team publish their work without bylines, since the majority is still located in Russia. This, however, doesn’t seem to be a trust barrier. “We have no superstars,” says our interlocutor, a member of 7x7’s editorial team, who asked to remain anonymous. “Our audience is used to following all our content, focusing on the brand, not on specific names.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 7x7’s reporters often also change their sources’ names and omit mentioning the region they come from, since such information could help tracking the sources down quite easily. They also allow the source to rephrase the statement after a consultation with 7x7’s lawyer, to avoid persecution under the new censorship laws. “We don’t want to give the state the opportunity to persecute our sources for taking an anti-war position, and we think that our audience understands this,” says our interlocutor. “In the last year and a half, I can’t remember getting any comments about our sources [that would be] wondering if they were fictional, claiming that something didn’t happen or saying that they don’t believe us.”

The greatest trust issue 7x7 faces is the assumption of potential sources that the media outlet has been proclaimed a foreign agent or a banned organisation (which at the moment is not the case – the Russian authorities have only blocked their website), and the consequent refusal to give a statement to the media outlet, as they want to avoid troubles. 

However, overall, trust prevails. “Those who know us know what we write about, what our position is, and they most likely trust us, most sources, as well as journalists working for other [independent] media outlets,” says our interlocutor.

There’s another crucial element to retain and, especially if the project is a new one, gain that trust: regardless of the amount of transparency, journalistic accuracy has to be impeccable.

“Because we have staff working anonymously and often have anonymous sources, it was very important for us to establish a fact-checking department,” says Alexander Polivanov, Helpdesk Media’s chief editor. “We devote a lot of time to fact-checking procedures, [thinking about] how we can avoid mistakes in critical situations.” 

When talking to sources, they analyse every word, try to spot rumours and figure out if the source is talking by themselves or simply quoting someone else - only then they decide whether to publish the story or not. “I think more people trust us precisely because of the fact-checking,” Polivanov adds.

The project also runs a thorough background check on their new employees and volunteers. “We want to reduce the risk of hiring an employee of the Russian special services disguised as a volunteer,” he explains. “We make sure that this person really exists, that there’s a years-long digital trace.”

Yet the stakes of trustworthiness remain high. “I am cautious to say that we are doing well, because one mistake can be very expensive, and we can be making this one mistake right now, as we speak,” Polivanov says. “You can do a lot of work very well, but then you get one small thing wrong and you get a scandal just because of that. It affects everything else and people only remember this mistake, so it is better for us to avoid them.”

The skill of talking to sources has become even more crucial. “Trust is essentially built on the level of journalists who continue to talk to sources, their wording, how they explain why it is so important to talk about a topic and not to remain silent, how they keep their word when they promise what will be published and what not, and keep all materials gathered for the story safe,” says our 7x7 interlocutor. “We haven’t had a case when sources faced problems due to carelessness from our side,” they add.

Most AvtoZak’s content is published without bylines, a practice that the media outlet had implemented already before the war due to the nature of their work, documenting protests, says the project’s coordinator Maxim Kondratev. However, when the project’s team members contact sources, as well as other people interested in the project, they do so through their personal accounts.

Although most members of the above-mentioned media outlets work anonymously, there are still some who are willing to personally represent their employer - usually from abroad. 7x7’s journalist Maxim Polyakov runs a podcast, AvtoZak’s Maxim Kondratev publicly takes the responsibility for the anonymously published content, while Helpdesk Media bases itself upon the reputation – and even social media accounts – of its founder and CEO, Russian journalist Ilya Krasilshchik. “The initial reputation came from him, and then the media outlet started speaking for itself,” Polivanov notes.

Having some team members who are willing to present themselves personally definitely conveys confidence, says our 7x7’s interlocutor. “It shows that we are a team, that we’re not just some people working from the underground,” they add.