Journalists Need State Protection More Than Other Professions - Medvedev
GORKI. Nov 8 (Interfax) - Journalists need state protection more than people of other professions due to the public significance of their work, President Dmitry Medvedev told personnel of the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"The government must be very attentive to journalists' work and react to attacks on their life or health even more than other similar cases due to the public significance of their activities," he said.
Medvedev mentioned the opinions that have been expressed on Twitter (a microblogging service). "They (Twitter users) say that you (the president) do not react to other crimes. Crimes are committed daily in Russia and in other countries, and some of them are very serious, but the president reacts to only one particular crime," he said.
"I reacted with purpose because journalists are people from a high risk group," he said.
"The government should be more attentive to journalists' work," he said.
"Journalists are supposed to tell the truth about people and events in this country and they must do that honestly and professionally. Thus, the activity of journalists, no matter what views they represent - right, left, moderate or radical - will always cause different reactions," he said.
"Many people do not like what is said or written about them. Many politicians do not like what is said or written about them, and, probably, I do not like it sometimes either. However, it is a duty of a journalist to inform people about certain events through the prism of his own views and with his own arguments. True, these comments are subjective because we are all human," Medvedev said.
"The government must be very attentive to journalists' work in order to guarantee this right," he said.
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