Asgat Safarov: Mass Media play an important role in uniting the society and strengthening patriotism

The Head of the Tatarstan President’s Office Agat Safarov took part in a resulting collegium of the Regional Agency on Press and Mass Communications Tatmedia held in the National Library of the republic. Before the meeting Asgat Safarov looked round stands with media products for children’s and adult audiences, interactive master-classes and digital projects.   

The head of the Agency Aydar Salimgarayev, who was the keynote speaker of the collegium, informed about the results of work for the last year and the targets to be reached by the media market of the republic. He said that no other region of Russia has such audience coverage as Tatarstan both at traditional sites and social media.

“The total number of social media subscribers of the leading mass media of the republic has reached 7.5m people which is by 25 per cent more than in the previous year. It is quite clear there are many cross-sections that’s why the numbers are bigger than existing residents, but they will keep growing”, he said.

Aydar Salimgarayev told about the news coverage by mass media of the republic, about problems with circulations of hard copy publications and their distribution and said that digitalization, the constant growth of distribution and materials costs and difficulties with equipment and spare parts supply placed printing and publishing activities under super severe conditions . “However, we managed to reach a substantial growth by increasing the amount of published newspapers by 69 and printed books by 23 per cent”, he said.

In his speech Asgat Safarov said that in 2022 Russia encountered a real information war when the external forces tried to seed panic and fear among population. In this fight Mass media played a special role helping people to withstand pressure and providing them with correct information, he said.

”Regional mass media should be especially attentive to interpretation and presentation of information. Provoking headlines, quote mining and evasion are quite unacceptable as they can mislead the public and cause concern. I would like to ask you to be extremely attentive when publishing materials related to the special military operation”, Asgat Safarov said.

He expressed special thanks to Tatarstan correspondents who visited Lisichansk and said: “You courage and loyalty to journalist’s duty causes respect”.

The Head of the President’s Office also mentioned that mass media play an important role in uniting the society and strengthening patriotism and expressed his gratitude to the journalists community of the republic for their coverage of large events held in 2022, including celebrations of 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria , events organized by the programme Kazan OIC Youth Capital and the 50th anniversary of the UBESCO Convention in protection of natural and cultural heritage. 

Speaking about the events to be held in the republic in the current year, Asgat Safarov concluded: “Large-scale coverage of these events should again show the world that it is impossible to isolate our country and exclude it from the international interaction processes”.