15:57, 19 June 2004

Public Examination project presented in Dagomys

Igor Yakovenko, Secretary General of the Union of Russian Journalists, presented a new project of the Union to participants in the media festival in Dagomys on June 16. The project is titled Public Examination. It is aimed at creating the system of civil control over the power. The Public Examination institute launched the Power-Society-Media project in April 2004, Mr Yakovenko said. In his words, the matter of this program lies in the change of relations between society and power. The mass media are to become mediators between these two institutions.

The concept of control supposes that Public Examination representatives will monitor the activity and inactivity of government officials. Then the media will report unbiased information about functionaries of all ranks to the audience without making any assessments. Thus people will be able to draw their own conclusions, Igor Yakovenko pointed out.

The work of Public Examination is a means to raise functionaries' responsibility to those whom they work for, Mr Yakovenko resumed.

Source: Union of Russian Journalists