This week Simon Cosgrove and Sergei Nikitin talk with Nadezhda Azhgikhina (pictured left), executive director of the Moscow PEN Centre. Nadezhda Azhgikina previously served two terms as vice-president of the European Federation of Journalists, and before that was a secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia. Nadezhda Azhgikina’s career as a journalist began at Komsomolskaya pravda, where she worked during the 1980s – the years of perestroika and glasnost – before moving to Ogonek and later to Nezavisimaya gazeta. This podcast is in the Russian language.
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Sergei Nikitin adds on Facebook: “The wonderful journalist Nadezhda Azhgikhina, with whom Simon Cosgrove and I talk in our latest podcast, has an amazing story to tell. Her first experience of journalism was when, as a student at a Moscow high school (where she was taught mathematics by Evgeny Bunimovich), she took part in contributing to a page – The Scarlet Sail – of the Komsomolskaya pravda newspaper that was devoted to writing by senior secondary school students. It was then she made the acquaintance of Simon Soloveichik and Inna Rudenko. The first texts she wrote for Komsomolka – written with a ballpoint pen in a school exercise book – appeared in the 1970s.
“The further progress of Nadezhda Azhgikhina’s career is a fascinating story through the history of Russian journalism. From the press of the Soviet times through the years of perestroika to the world of today. The many topics discussed, as our hour’s podcast speeds by, include what is happening in Russian journalism today, the creation and role of the Moscow PEN Centre, the importance of solidarity and support by the European Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists – and the importance of solidarity in our lives in general. It’s well worth the listen”.
Simon Cosgrove adds: If this podcast does not play immediately on the podcast.com website, please download by clicking on the three dots to the right. A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.
