Protest rally against "mass media outrage" took place in Pushkin square. The poster says "Who is responsible for our degradation? It is the mass media!".
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
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Russian Mass Media Executives Silence Extremists
Heads of several Russian media companies called on the media community to “be particularly careful while covering ethnicism issues, because the rate of crimes committed on the grounds of national intolerance has increased” yesterday. This appeal was signed by the administration of VGTRK, Voice of Russia radio station, Russia Today TV channel, Interfax news agency, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Moskovsky Komsomolets.
Besides, the heads of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Gazprom-Media holding, Prof-Media company, Seven Days Publishing House, Video International company, Mediasoyuz, Guild of Periodical Press Publishers also signed the appeal.
“We must prove that journalists will not let political swindlers and those who incite inter-ethnic, racial and religious hostility get on air or into press,” states the appeal. Its authors remark that now it is essential “not to admit biased selection of facts with nationalistic coloring, or artificial division of the country into hostile ethnic groups, or accusations against other nationalities into press or literature.”
Media executives agreed to “be aware that mass media provoke its audience to form negative stereotypes when pointing out ethnic origin of criminals in crime coverage.” “But we know that murderers and rapists have no nationality, in fact,” stresses the appeal. Its authors came to the conclusion that Russia faces “a growing threat of confrontation and antagonism between ethnic groups”. In such conditions, “whether Russian society breaks up” depends a lot on mass media, Interfax reported.
www.kommersant.com
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