MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Top executives of more than 500 Russian-language media outlets from 63 countries are gathering in Moscow for the 17th World Congress of the Russian Press.
The discussions will center on the development of a common Russian-language media space and cooperation of the journalist community for an unbiased coverage of events in Russia and abroad. Another priority issue to be considered is the implementation of the fellow-countrymen’s rights to getting access to information and communications in their native tongue and the expansion of educational, cultural, informational, creative, and professional exchanges.
Vitaly Ignatenko, the President of the World Association of the Russian-Language Media (VARP) that acts as a facilitator of the event said the 70th anniversary since victory in World War II is destined to become a major topic at the congress. "It is important to ensure that historic truth about our people’s deeds should raise the upper hand in the global media community," he said.
The main objective of the congress is to make Russian speech in the media authoritative and weighty. "The main thing is to allow the people living outside Russia, both ethnic Russians and those who speak the language, to have unbiased information and to get much broader knowledge of this country compared with the opportunities offered by other media," Ignatenko said.
Mikhail Shvydkoi, the Russian President’s special envoy for international cultural cooperation who will attend the congress agreed with its description as a crucially important event. "If we want to speak about a self-identity of the Russian people and the Russian world today, language is a crucial instrument for building up this identity," he said.
The seventeenth Congress of the Russian Press, which is held from June 9 through June 13 at Moscow’s World Trade Center, is co-organized by TASS and VARP. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the chief of the Presidential Administration staff, Sergei Ivanov, State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin, TASS Director-General Sergei Mikhailov, VARP President Vitaly Ignatenko, and others.
VARP is the only global association of Russian-language journalists, publishers and CEOs of electronic and other media living and working outside Russia. The Bank of Moscow is the general partner of the congress and the telecommunications companies Rostelecom and Rosset are its official partners.