Russian journalists and state authorities worked together...

Regional Media Support Programme in Russia Internews organised “Changing Places” seminar in Surgut. 12 russian media professionals (1 representative of written press, 5 radio journalists and 6 TV journalists) and 12 representatives of state authorities in Surgut took part in the training.

The aim of this seminar is to raise understanding of methods and principles of cooperation between mass-media and state authorities. Besides the seminar has given to participants the idea about working methods of each other.

A trainer Boris Pantelleev said: "This seminar “Changing Places” in Surgut has turned out extremely emotional and substantially interesting. Representatives of state authorities, and regional prosecutors in particular showed high interest to the training. Participants have been divided into 4 groups and actively analised given examples of conflict situations, argued concerning an opportunity of such cases in specific conditions of their region, presented their own examples similar with specified in distributed materials. Hot seminar discussions contrasted with - 40 degree frosts in the street!"

For the first time for many participants professional standards of media activity have been shown and explained. Professional ethical codes and other similar corporate documents have been discussed and critically analysed, for example article from the Russian Federation Criminal Code concerning the professional status of journalists.

This project is funded by the European Commission TACIS Programme.