Following Saturday’s performance of “Intractable Woman” the Department of Theater Arts hosted a talk between investigative reporter Matthew Kupfer ’12 and Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko titled “The Legacy of Anna Politkovskaya and Journalism Today.” It would be remiss not to mention that Kupfer has extensive experience covering stories in Eastern Europe and the United States at the global and local levels. Both Kostyuchenko and Kupfer asked each other questions and answered inquiries from the audience.

 The event was open to the public and was thematically aligned with “Intractable Woman’s” subject matter, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya was internationally renowned for her investigative reporting work on the Second Chechen War, the subject of the play. Unfortunately, Politkovskaya was killed in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow in 2006, a crime which many still believe to be unsolved. 

Kupfer and Kostyuchenko began their conversation discussing Politkovskaya and the way Russian journalism has changed in the wake of her death. Kostyuchenko previously worked at Novaya Gazeta where she briefly overlapped with Politkovskaya. However, in 2022 the Novaya Gazeta’s journalistic license was revoked by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal agency that oversees censorship of Russian mass media, for their coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Officially, the Novaya Gazeta no longer exists and Kostyuchenko now lives in exile. 

After discussing Russia’s censorship of journalism following their invasion in Ukraine Kostyuchenko asked Kupfer about the challenges journalism is currently facing in America. Jeff Bezos’ recent interventions in dictating what The Washington Post publishes were mentioned as an example. Kupfer’s response was to highlight America’s strong tradition of free press and that it was too early and hard to say whether journalists were prepared for what may be deemed as further censorship. He stressed that the approach of journalism does not change and that his personal belief is the risk lies in how the press will choose to interrogate the current administration. The press must walk the fine line between “too much advocacy” and “too much obfuscating.” He also said that he thinks it is best to wait and see how things change as the early surprises of the new administration wear off. Kupfer and Kostyuchenko then took questions from the crowd on a variety of subjects. They ended with discussing bipartisanship and how to talk with family members with very different political views. Ultimately they concluded by saying that understanding and connecting with others is important because we must coexist with one another.