MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— The main news agenda for Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries is formed in Moscow, its Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at a reception for the participants and guests of the World Media Summit on Thursday, July 5.
“I am glad to welcome you in Moscow at the World Media Summit. I think you have chosen an appropriate place for it,” the mayor said, adding that “the main news agenda for Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries is formed in Moscow”.
All leading Russian journalists are trained and work in Moscow, and all major television and radio companies, news agencies, newspapers and magazines have their offices in the Russian capital.
Sobyanin stressed that Moscow is the biggest and dynamically growing megalopolis in Europe and everything that happens in it is of interest to both Russian and foreign mass media.
“Journalists always write about rural places with piety and are critical of big cities even though urbanisation remains the main global trend,” he said.
Often, when mass media write about economy, they focus on oil and gas although “rapid economic growth” starts in big cities, Sobyanin noted.
The mayor believes that the Moscow city authorities have “made some success” and “for the first time in decades the birth rate in Moscow has exceeded mortality, for the first time after the crisis we have stable investment in the economy, and more guests and tourists come to our city”.
Speaking about interaction between City Council and mass media, Sobyanin stressed that he did not think this work could be possible “without openness and cooperation with mass media”.
ITAR-TASS Director-General Vitaly Ignatenko, who is the head of the World Media Summit Organising Committee, said, “The Government of Moscow and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin have been very helpful in organising the forum” and provided the historical building of the Hotel Metropol in the centre of the city for the reception.
“The building we are in now has seen much: revolutionaries and renowned artists stayed here in the past, but never before did it have nearly 300 representatives of different countries all coming together at one time,” he said.
A bus tour was organised for the forum participants on Wednesday, and they all liked the city, Ignatenko said. “It was interesting to hear your opinion. This is a beautiful city, a city where young people live, a ‘flying’ city,” he said and wished success to the forum participants.
Kyodo News President Satoshi Ishikawa thanked Ignatenko and Sobyanin for the excellent summit and for having it in Moscow. “This is the most beautiful time to be in Moscow,” he said.
Ishikawa recalled his previous trip to the Russian capital in 1980 when he was reporting from the Moscow Olympic Games. “Since then Moscow has travelled a long way and become a leading city of the world,” Ishikawa said.