TASS deputy head raises concern over Russian-language media’s disappearance abroad

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Russian-language media outlets are fading out in foreign countries due to a lack of support and proper attention to them, TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman said on Wednesday presenting the integration club’s annual report at the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament).. "More than 80 countries have Russian-language journalism. It is important to speak about it. We are alarmed that regrettably, due to a lack of support and proper attention, the Russian-language media are merely disappearing, for example in the Baltic states. The issue is particularly acute in, let’s say, in Lithuania or Estonia," Gusman said during the presentation. The first deputy head of the Russian state-run news agency TASS added that the Russian-language media cannot be funded directly, because of a lack of finance among other reasons. Moreover, Gusman added those media’s financing frequently "is not so easy politically." However, he pointed out that among the mechanisms supporting the Russian-language media might be advertisements placed by major Russian companies, since it is "an absolutely legal form". "We have been discussing that at the club meeting. We will be again asking the club’s chairs and Valentina Ivanovna [Matviyenko, the upper house speaker] to turn to our largest state corporations which allocate huge money for advertising," Gusman stressed adding that the issue "has not been solved yet and still remains a matter of concern." Apart from that, the club suggested that more quotas should be considered so that foreign students can study at Russia’s top universities, doing degrees in teaching Russian or in Russian-language journalism. Read more