The Price of Truth, Channel 4 — punchy portrait of Russian journalism under fire

The editor-in-chief of the unflinchingly independent, Kremlin-challenging newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, is the subject of a punchy yet intimate new Channel 4 documentary. Directed by his longtime friend Patrick Forbes, The Price of Truth follows the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner throughout “the worst year of [his] life” as he strives to keep his publication afloat, his staff safe and Vladimir Putin held to account in the face of many threats. Cameras are given access to secret meetings, furtive departures from Moscow and a daring attempt to open a “European” offshoot of the paper in Riga, on the one condition that nobody’s life is put at risk. Eventually filming has to stop, the danger too immediate.

Muratov sees his role as being a protector of both his journalists and the Russian public. While his colleagues and daughter wonder if he should leave the country (due to acts of intimidation and surveillance) he sees escape as being tantamount to abandonment. “It’s hard to imagine your homeland without freedom and hard to imagine freedom without your homeland,” he explains in one of many sage and sharply articulated observations here.

What the film does particularly well is accentuate the tragic irony which has seen Muratov become branded a foreign agent and enemy of the state despite seeming an exemplary patriot. Unlike Putin, he says, he believes in living for one’s nation, not dying for it; in building an inclusive, open future, not “thinking about how to change the past”. In the end, his newspaper is shut down. “What the fuck else are we supposed to do?” he asks incredulously.

Without veering into sentimental hagiography, The Price of Truth serves as both a stirring portrait of an extraordinary man and a vital testament to the value — and values — of a dissenting press that represents millions. As media outlets continue to be forcibly closed and journalists arrested, Muratov and his team continue, undeterred, to speak, write, and so fight. It’s not that they do so fearlessly — apprehension is frequently vocalised and etched on to Muratov’s face — rather that they recognise that the consequences of not doing their work are far, far worse.

★★★★☆

On Channel 4 on August 21 at 10pm and streaming thereafter