ASU to Become a Site for 2018 Caspian Media Forum

Mass media of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenia have been invited to Astrakhan. The Forum is to take place on September 19, 2018.

On May 17, Astrakhan hosted a meeting of the organizing committee of the Caspian Media Forum; Mr. Alexey Volin (Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation) took part in it. Mr. Alexander Zhilkin (Governor of Astrakhan Region) chairs the organizing committee.

The Caspian Media Forum will be held in Astrakhan for the fourth time; it is a traditional site of professional contacts between reps of mass media, an important event contributing to social, economic, and humanitarian cooperation between the five countries at the Caspian Sea.

ASU was also the project partner over the last years. In 2016, it hosted master classes by Prof. Mikhail Osadchiy from the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute and by Ms. Tina Berezhnaya, IT Counselor of General Manager of the RT TV Channel. It also hosted presentations of media projects by delegations of the five participating countries.

In 2017, our Caspian Higher School of Interpreting & Translation hosted a training course for the participants of the New Generation Program of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation. Professors of the Higher School of Economics – National Research University delivered the course; our students provided conference interpreting into/from Farsi at that event.

According to the web portal of the Government of Astrakhan Region, the RT TV Channel will deliver master classes in TV journalism, multimedia editing, social networks, and editorship at the upcoming Forum. The event agenda also includes a meeting of the Caspian Editorial Office, which is a noncommercial association of TV media of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Astrakhan Region. A youth information portal for beginning journalists of the Caspian Sea Region is supposed to start operating soon.

The participants of the Caspian Expert Club established in 2016 at the 2nd Caspian Media Forum will take part in the discussion “Information Agenda of Caspian Sea Region: More Good News”.

For the first time, the discussion panel “Caspian Youth Initiative: Building the Future Together” and the interactive panel “Caspian Region Is Our Common Home” will involve students, young reps of ethnic diasporas, experts, and participants of the above-mentioned New Generation Program all together. These events will be held at ASU as well.