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World Association of Russian Press Council conference ends in Baden-Baden

Within the framework of the conference a unique publishing project, Russian Secrets of Baden-Baden, was presented

BERLIN, November 6 (Itar-Tass) ——A two-day conference of the World Association of Russian Press (WARP) Council ended in the German city of Baden-Baden on Saturday, November 5.

The participants in the meeting discussed the preparation of the upcoming 14th World Congress of the Russian Press to be held in Italy in September 2012.

The Russian delegation to the conference included president of the Association and director general of Itar-Tass Vitaly Ignatenko, editor-in-chief of the Rossiskaya Gazeta daily Vladislav Fronin, editor-in-chief of the Moskovsky Komsomolets Pavel Gusev, and editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok magazine Viktor Loshak.

Baden-Baden was chosen as the venue of the Council meeting due to its long-standing ties with Russia and Russian culture and such names as Nikolai Gogol, Vasily Zhukovsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Marissnky Theatre Director and Conductor Valery Gergiyev who has been organizing “Russian music seasons” in that German city for several years.

Within the framework of the conference a unique publishing project, Russian Secrets of Baden-Baden, was presented. Also within the conference’s work, a meeting between heads of Russia’s leading mass media and editors of Germany’s most influential newspapers was organized.

The World Association of Russian Press is an open international non-governmental independent organization, created in 1999 by ITAR-TASS, the Russian Press Institute, Novoye Rosskoye Slovo (The New Russian World) (U.S.), and Russkaya Mysl (The Russian Thought) (France). It brings together more than 3,000 printed and electronic Russian-language media in more than 80 countries worldwide.

The organization has no charter and is headquartered in Moscow.

One of its main missions is to promote the Russian language, which is said to be the third most popular language in the world and is a working language in many international organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

There are more than 30 million Russian-speaking people in the world, and some 350 million people understand Russian.

WARP also seeks to strengthen contacts with compatriots, work out approaches towards objective and broad coverage of events in Russia, and create a common global Russian-language space.

ITAR-TASS provides information support to the Russian press abroad through WARP free of charge. Numerous media abroad receive the ITAR-TASS newswire and graphics.

ITAR-TASS Director-General Vitaly Ignatenko has been WARP president since 1999. WARP work is coordinated by the Council and its.

There are also three commissions within WARP: on journalism ethics, on resolution of information disputes, and organizational commission.