Reviewed by Clare Brook
Michael Delahaye is a former BBC Television news reporter, correspondent and documentary producer. From 1998 he worked as a senior media consultant for the Thomson Foundation UK to protect and develop independent journalism in the post-Soviet world. He travelled throughout the Russian Federation – Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. After the Fall: the battle to save independent media in the post-Soviet World is an account of Delahaye’s experiences, which he describes as first-person reportage, heavy on anecdote, part travelogue, part confessional. As such it is a most readable account of the former Soviet empire’s transition from communism to democracy and capitalism.
And, it was a bumpy transition for all concerned, especially Delahaye. He was in the trenches, so to speak, learning the reality of imposing Western ‘best practice’ journalism, along with Western values. Values that had been developed over many years by a completely different culture, alien to the Russian mind set. The parable of pouring new wine into old skins comes to mind. As the bearer of ‘new wine’ Delahaye’s attempts were foiled at most junctures. He had expected to be welcomed but soon discovered that culture is hard wired. He expresses it thus:
… We were like peripatetic gardeners who despite their success in planting and propagating in their own part of the world, had little or no knowledge of the climate or soil conditions of the foreign parts they were sent to.
Delahaye found the Russians he encountered were cultured, intelligent, educated and ‘damned smart’. They had found ways to work around the constraints of communism, accepting what they could not change. Corruption, bottom up and top down, was ingrained into the system. No-one liked it but it was a necessity due to low wages that did not provide enough to live on. This was not conducive for free and fair-minded reporting. Someone’s interests was always being served, usually the owners of the many television stations that peppered the various states. So training journalist with the goal of servicing and informing the community, as opposed to pandering to the interests of the stations owners, or government propaganda, was an almost impossible task. Holding authority to account was an alien, often dangerous, concept. MTV gave Putin some bad press in the early days of Yeltsin’s reign, this resulted in Putin style revenge when he gained power. MTV was forced to sell to the state, its owner retired to safety which ended in suicide, apparently.
Delahaye’s account of his experiences are interesting and informative, an object lesson in taking cultural difference for granted. However, some gains were made, the idealists, the most talented trainee journalists ended up working in the BBC World Service in London, one of whom spends time encouraging journalists from her homeland.
The above is a brief account of a most interesting report. Delahaye is also the author of three thrillers published in the UK, US and Japan: The Sale of Lot 236, The Third Day (US version: On The Third Day) and Stalking Horse. Born and educated in England, Delahaye is now based in Adelaide, Australia.
By Michael Delahaye
(November 2025)
Wakefield Press
Paperback
ISBN: 9781923388253
$39.95; 383pp