DIALOGUE WITH THE " FOURTH POWER

It is no coincidence that the mass media call it " the fourth power - the power over people's minds. Newspapers, TV and radio programs really influence the formation of public opinion on the most pressing issues. Including, of course, on such an important issue as the country's defense. In general, we can say directly: the attitude of Russians to the Armed Forces, to military service, to a large extent depends on the position of the press.

Our correspondent had a conversation with the assistant Commander of the district troops for public relations about how the press service of the district builds its work with the media, conducts a dialogue with the fourth power, what place it occupies in the process of forming a positive image of the army in the eyes of the population, in promoting heroic traditions and military-patriotic education of and the media - the head of the press service of the Ural Military District, Colonel Dmitry Gusev.

- Dmitry Nikolaevich,you have been managing the press service since the first days of the re-creation of the UrVO. The district has established a whole system of interaction with civil media. Tell us about it, please.

- Good business relations were immediately established with most of the journalistic teams of the regions and national entities where the UrVO is stationed. Over the years, they have become even stronger and have been implemented in many joint initiatives.

So, we closely cooperate and provide practical assistance to the TV program "People in uniform" (Sverdlovsk State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, directed by Gennady Prikhodko). This year alone, more than 20 stories about the life of the district's troops were prepared here. With our active participation, a press club of journalists was created at the Tyumen UWC and a branch of the Military Engineering University. Our good partner is the radio station of the Kurgan region, where the Ratnik program is constantly running, as well as most of the region's newspapers-Uralsky Rabochy, Oblastnaya Gazeta, Tyumenskaya Pravda, Chelyabinsk Rabochy and a number of others.

The system of interaction with the media is organized as follows. On a weekly basis, the press service prepares a press release about the most important events taking place in the district's troops. In extreme situations, when holding unscheduled events that need press coverage, we provide materials immediately. I would like to note that this year we have prepared about 200 such reports for the media. In addition, information materials are regularly published on the pages of the district newspaper "Ural Military News" under the heading "UrVO Press service informs".

To strengthen the trust of our civilian colleagues in the information we provide, we practice regular collective visits of journalists to the troops. In 1999, there were more than seventy such trips, primarily related to combat training classes, with significant events in the life of units and formations of the district. The journalists visited almost all branches of the armed forces and formations of the district. We were able to show our colleagues how a young soldier develops, from individual training to regimental live-fire exercises.

- What new forms of work do you apply?

"I wouldn't put it that way. For it is well known that the new is almost always the well-forgotten old. I think it is more important that the press service has formed a team of like-minded people who are primarily interested in the final results of their work. All of them are experienced people with a rich military and journalistic practice.

If we talk about some of our initiatives, then one of them can be considered traditional meetings - something like a coordination council, which is attended by representatives of central military publications accredited in the district, the editor of the district newspaper and press service officers. At these meetings, we develop a common policy and exchange information.

Another form is the press club under the Information Department of the Sverdlovsk Region Administration, which we participate in. I must say that thanks to this press club, we are now developing cooperation not only with the regional press, but also with city and district newspapers. Our information is included in a separate section in special bulletins issued by the Department of Information and sent to all cities and towns of the region. Almost every district newspaper receives this information. And we, in turn, receive all the local newspapers that contain articles about our soldiers, about military-patriotic events.

We have good relations with the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the Union of Journalists of Russia. Together with him and the association

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"Return" we are holding a contest for the best military-patriotic publication by young authors. By the way, our military journalists have repeatedly won such competitions held in the region.

- Of course, your active work could not but affect the attitude to army problems in the local media...

"Yes, indeed. During the existence of the press service, we have made a serious contribution to the formation of a positive attitude of the region's population towards the Armed Forces. According to my personal observations, if the press services of the districts had been created a little earlier, we would have been able to largely avoid a whole series of so-called "revealing", and in fact simply defamatory materials, which were so abundant in the pages of newspapers during the years of perestroika. It's no secret what damage these articles have done to the prestige of the army...

Now, if we talk about the Ural region, in comparison with 1992, the attitude of civilian media to the army and its problems has changed radically. With the help of the command of units and formations, we were able to show even the most distrustful and unfriendly journalists what military service is.

The fact that even the most pretentious publications in the region, such as "Region-inform", "Details", and the TV program "9 and a half", can also serve as evidence of changes, the number of negative, unverified facts has sharply decreased. Most publications simply do not publish information on the newspaper pages and on the air until they consult with our press service. We are always ready to provide any explanations and help. We do not try to embellish the reality, we know that deception is unacceptable, and our colleagues will not forgive it.

We also do not ignore the appearance of false information. In such cases, we have retaliatory measures: refutations, individual explanatory interviews, and in extreme cases, revocation of accreditation. To our mutual satisfaction, I think, with the civil media, we have been using such measures less and less frequently lately. A decent attitude towards colleagues causes a similar response. The fact that the information situation in the Urals has become much more favorable may be indicated by this fact. At one of the round tables, the journalist stood up and apologized to the army and the press service in the presence of her colleagues for her previous negative position. She literally said the following: "I am guilty before the military for the fact that I was often biased towards them. I'm sorry, and from now on, consider me the best friend of the army."

- It is gratifying when a person finds the courage to admit their mistakes. And yet, there are probably a number of problems that would allow you and your employees to work even more efficiently.

- There are certainly such problems. First of all, we have not yet fully developed the press service infrastructure. So, in one of the formations, the post of assistant commander for public relations and media was introduced. This, of course, is good. But in my opinion, such positions in the UWC are much more necessary! Military registration and enlistment offices are the link that connects civil and military life, and they begin a young person's acquaintance with the army. We work very closely with military registration and enlistment offices and see that a public relations and media officer is absolutely necessary there.

Another problem is the organization of subscriptions to regional newspapers. Unfortunately, they didn't listen to our suggestions and didn't make changes to the subscription management directive. It says that we have the right to subscribe to one regional newspaper. But there are four oblasts and two national entities in the district, which means six federal subjects. Financiers stand by the letter of the law, saying: if the directive allowed subscriptions to "one newspaper from each region", we would not have any problems. In the meantime, we have to write letters to editors asking them to send us their publications. And these packages arrive only twice a month, which means that the information is outdated.

It is impossible not to mention the technical support of the press service. At the training camp, I saw with good envy how well the press service of the Air Force was provided. We can only dream of such computers. True, we have a movie camera and a fax machine donated by the administration of the Tyumen Region, but this is not enough today. I think that the money spent on computers for the press services for our army will pay off handsomely.

Finally, at meetings in Moscow, I have repeatedly made a proposal to create VoenTV correspondent points in the districts. This would be doubly useful. The offices would feed VoenTV and local TV channels with their materials. Today, military television is very remote from the districts. In the seven years of our press service's existence, I saw VoenTV representatives only on the days when the Defense Minister arrived in the Urals. There was no response to all our requests. And when one day the film crew did arrive, all they shot was a story about an ensign digging potatoes in a private plot in Chebarkul. What, we don't have anything else to show in the area? Here, for the first time, the Tochka rocket was launched, the anniversary of the district and the 100th anniversary of Zhukov, who, as you know, commanded the URVO, were celebrated...

I believe that the implementation of all these proposals would help improve the efficiency of all the press services of the Russian Armed Forces.

The conversation was conducted by Colonel Alexander KERDAN, senior permanent correspondent of the magazine "Orientir" for the Ural Military District

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