NCFD's Public Council urges media to improve quality of materials about Northern Caucasus

The Public Council of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) has called on the managers of non-state media not to disseminate immoral programmes and articles, but to present the audience with a higher-quality content, which could contribute to the "positive image" of Northern Caucasus.

"In pursuit of hot topics and top rankings, some TV channels have literally got mad; and if all that is performed in their right mind, there are all signs of a crime at least against our children, their mental health and development," said Inal Gashokov, a member of the Public Council of the NCFD and Deputy Chairman of the City Duma of Cherkessk.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 21 Ingushetia hosted the third meeting of the members of the Public Council under Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Russian President to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), where they discussed the issues of "improvement of psychological and social status of young people and strengthening of the positive role of mass media in implementing the youth policy in the subjects of the District."

In the course of the meeting, the members of the Public Council addressed the managers of the major Russian TV and printed media, persistently urging them to correct their editorial policy and show a more balanced attitude to the issues related to broadcasting and publication of materials of frivolous content, acts of violence and articles, which detrimentally affect young people and kindle interethnic enmity.

Media should write more professionally about the Caucasus

The participants of the meeting stressed a very low level of journalism in the region and proposed to establish a permanent media centre in Northern Caucasus, or to conduct training courses in the region twice a year with assistance of high-qualified professionals working for central TV channels.

"These professionals are unlikely to come to Northern Caucasus to work on a permanent basis. Therefore, it would be reasonable to invite high-level professionals to our place at least twice a year, and they could conduct workshops for regional journalists," believes Inal Gashokov.

According to his story, it is also necessary to intensify the work aimed at moral and spiritual education of the youth, perhaps, taking the best from the Soviet epoch, when the state "by all possible means of influence sent a clear message to its citizens - love your Homeland, be patriotic, keep a healthy lifestyle and respect each other - then, our country shall become stronger."

"Today, media show us dirtiness, murderers, drug addicts, prostitutes and paedophiles. At present, the media interest in Northern Caucasus is heated only by the extraordinary events, which occur here: bombings, assassinations and terror acts. Most often, Russian media present Caucasian natives as criminals or people with lack of intelligence. Thus, separation of Russian nations is being consistently fed up," Inal Gashokov has emphasized.

Important cultural events in NCFD are often overlooked

According to observations of the participants, media often disregard the most important cultural events in the region. Thus, according to them, the large-scale sport competitions "Caucasian Games" remained outside special media coverage, although attended by top-ranking officials of the NCFD and prominent Russian athletes. The media were hardly interested in highlighting the singer-rock festival named "For Peace in Caucasus", even despite the fact that the event was attended by more than two thousand people, and an application to the Guinness Book of Records was made.

"Recently, in Karachay-Cherkessia, a monument to the victims of the terror act in Beslan was opened, the funds for its construction were raised by residents of the republic; however, no central TV channel mentioned the event even in brief. At this time, all journalists enjoyed writing that a bear killed a man in Karachay-Cherkessia, six or seven TV channels contacted me for comments. It turns out that journalists are eager to come for bad news, and we have to pay for their report about good news," said Inal Gashokov.

The conference announced the proposals in the field of culture. One of them was the project named "The Travelling Cultural Capital", within which prominent figures of Russian culture will be invited to make a tour over Northern Caucasus.

"Today, all journalists keep crying out that the situation in the Caucasus is bad and there is a war there; however, this is not true. Well, incidents occur in the Caucasus; however, no more than elsewhere in Russia. Perhaps, somebody benefits from exposing our Caucasus in the negative light. We should combat such ugly trends," believes Ismail-Hadji Berdiev, another member of the Public Council of the NCFD, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Karachay-Cherkessia.

"One of my points, to which I tried to draw the attention, was a proposal to write the general history of Northern Caucasus, since this topic is treated differently in our regions. To avoid any ambiguity and to ensure that the history is presented to our children in the same positive way, we decided to check the textbooks of the republics from our region. We raise the issue of publication of books on the modern history of Northern Caucasus," said Elizaveta Barkinkhoeva, a member of the Public Council.

According to her story, the project realization will be decided through the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.

Tourism can improve image of Northern Caucasus

The participants of the meeting of the Public Council of the NCFD emphasized that, in the first place, tourism should assist in creating the "positive image of the Caucasus"; given that fact that the meeting was held in Ingushetia, in the Djeirakh District, known for its natural beauties.

The audience highlighted the idea that by unfolding of large-scale tourist projects it would not only be possible to present the beauty of Northern Caucasus to the entire world and create its image of a peaceful region with unique attractions, but also to involve local population and partially solve the problem of employment.

Problem of missing persons should be addressed

Elizaveta Barkinkhoeva, Chair of the Committee of the Republic of Ingushetia on assistance to search of hostages and disappeared persons, believes that the creation of the "positive image of Northern Caucasus" could be also affected by solution of the problem of searching the kidnapped and missing persons.

"I personally handed over to Mr Khloponin (Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Russian President to the NCFD, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") an appeal on the search for missing persons. I wrote in the document that the Investigatory Committee would not work and asked the Envoy to pay attention to this problem," said Elizaveta Barkinkhoeva.

The exact date of the next sitting of the Public Council has not been determined yet. Presumably, it will be held in late 2011 or January 2012.