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Mass Media Far From the Migration Issue

On September 17, a seminar took place on the theme �Human Rights Activists in Mass Media: The Migration Process and the Rights of Citizens.� in the residence of the Saratova regional department of the Union of Journalists. The seminar was organized in the framework of the project �Assistance to Consolidating NGOs and the Media in Reconciling Human Rights�.

The Moscow Center of Public Information, represented by Ashot Ayrapetyan, and the Union of Russian Journalists provided the technical organization for the conference. In the seminar participated the journalists from Marx, Engels, Pugachev and Samara, as well as the leaders of the Georgian and Armenian communities in Saratov and the president of the Association of Forced Migrants �Saratov Source� Alexander Zuev.

This was not the first seminar of its kind. In April of this year, the Association conducted a seminar and a round table on the theme of �Interaction Between Public Ethnic Cultural Unions and the Authorities in Fighting Against Xenophobia and Nationalism�. So the content of the seminar was foreseeable, proceeding from the principle: �The More Changes Demanded, the More We Persistently Don�t Change�. And at this seminar, like at previous events, participants listened to standard complaints about delays in official registration of migrants� documents, on the callousness of officials, on the red tape which deprives people the opportunity to receive pension for several years, and a growing stream of references of citizens with complaints to the Representative on Human Rights in the regions. Marina Yants, the division head of the Sector of authorities. Often ethnic Russians who wish to leave Central Asian Countries and settle in Russia end up in deplorable situations. In these cases it is already becoming customarily impossible to refer to xenophobia, as all matters are in the heartless official apparatus, which acts formally official in accordance with the legislation. It proves to be inhuman. As brightly noted by Ashot Ayrapetyan, it is not so important to people to know how many complaints have been registered with human rights authorities, and how embattled rights are defended and what role the mass media play in it. And concerning this matter, it is at its worst in the dense cobweb of officialdom.

It is not enough to expect all mass media to take a civic stand in illuminating the situation connected with immigration processes. Let us say that the commercial media are only interested in this topic insofar as to create a sensation. It is possible that the civic stand could be the most different in relating to immigrants. Some media, in defending the rights of ethnic Russians, completely negatively relate to �non-Russians�, thus freely or involuntarily spreading xenophobic dispositions. At the level of the power structures, xenophobic tendencies are obscured and covered by formally correct words and events, directed at strengthening tolerance and opposing xenophobia, they are, in reality, in the essence of clericalism, which doesn�t lower the level of xenophobia but contributes to it and strengthens it. At this level, just as in the legal sphere, is the noticeable tendency to distinguish between ethnic and religious issues.

In life, however, ordinary xenophobia does not frequently distinguish between the two which are inherent in the process of migration.

A generalized picture that reflect the legal protection of citizens implicated in the immigration processes, appears as follows: Authorities prove not capable of considering the entire complexity of the immigration processes and of ensuring their lawful and valid resolution. In this process, mass media play a far from simple role, and not only as a whole are not capable of protecting the rights of citizens (although seminar results seemed to give a different answer), but also often serve as instigators of xenophobia and aggressive tendencies, as noted in society. The picture, although as a whole is depressing, appears to be completely objective and adequate to the state of society.



Source: Bogatej.ru



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