Education Quote by Dmitry Medvedev

Medvedev’s line reads like a civics textbook, but it carries the unmistakable pressure of a ruler speaking about a force he wants to manage. “Informing and educating” sounds benevolent, even aspirational: the media as a public utility, a partner in modernization. Then the hinge: “but.” The sentence pivots from freedom’s vocabulary to supervision’s. “Responsible and accountable” are slippery terms in any democracy; in an authoritarian-leaning system they become elastic tools, capable of stretching to cover everything from libel laws to licensing, from selective prosecutions to quiet ownership changes.

The specific intent is to claim the moral high ground: no leader publicly opposes a well-informed public. By granting the premise that media matters, Medvedev signals modernity and legitimacy, especially to foreign audiences and urban professionals who expect a freer press. The subtext is that information is acceptable so long as it serves social order and state priorities. “Accountable” doesn’t specify accountable to whom: citizens, courts, or the executive. That ambiguity is the point. It lets the state present constraints as ethics, and censorship as consumer protection.

Context does the heavy lifting. Medvedev’s presidency (2008-2012) was marketed as a softer, more tech-friendly interlude, yet it sat inside Putin’s broader architecture of “managed democracy.” In that setting, this quote functions less as a warning to reckless journalists than as a pre-emptive justification for control: the state casting itself as referee of truth while quietly deciding who gets to play.