#2 - JRL 7015
PRESS MINISTER INVITES JOURNALISTS NOT TO MIX PRESS
FREEDOM WITH PERMISSIVENESS
MOSCOW, JANUARY 13. /FROM A RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT/ -- Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin has invited Russian journalists "not to mix freedom with permissiveness". This is said in the Lesin appeal to the mass media on the occasion of the Russian Press Day, marking the 300th jubilee. "After long years of total control" Russia is passing the "test of freedom", which requires greater responsibility before society and, in the first place, before oneself, stressed the minister.
In the appeal, whose text has come to hand at RIA Novosti on Monday, the press minister wishes to journalists "a fresh outlook, clear thought and speedy pen". "The profession of a journalist is special - bringing home all fresh information to society. Journalism cannot be merely taught: journalists also have to be educated", he says.
The press minister calls gladdening the fact that the Russian mass media industry "is more and more actively being involved in the process of self-perfection and self-organization" and "the question of development and observance of norms of the professional ethics is becoming more and more poignant for every journalist". "The development of public dialogue", as the latest history requires, is impossible "without in-depth understanding of the rights of citizens to free access to information", he says.
Next Article