The XIV WORLD CONGRESS OF THE RUSSIAN PRESS HELD IN ITALY IN THE PERIOD FROM SEPTEMBER 23 TO SEPTEMBER 27, 2012. THIS EVENT IS HELD ANNUALLY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. IF IN THE PAST YEAR HE HAS PASSED IN UKRAINE - IN KIEV AND ODESSA, THEN THE LARGEST CITY OF SOUTH ITALY - NAPLES - WAS SELECTED IN THIS VENUE. A NUMBER OF OFFICIAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS WAS ORGANIZED ON ISLANDS OF REAN AND CAPRI.
“I saw them in Italy on a map with my boots”, I mentally quoted the hero Leonid Bronevoy from “Formula of Love”, packing my bags in anticipation of my trip to Naples ...
It so happened that at the age of forty and having traveled so many countries that the next passport again ends with visa pages, I have never been to Europe. It’s not that it wasn’t at all, but somehow it’s not in the “real” European countries (forgive me Ukrainians, Moldavians and Russians) or it was, but it was in transit. A special note in anticipation of the trip was added by the fact that the organizers designated the island of Capri as the venue for the next, already fourteenth, Congress of the Russian Press. "Capri is a tiny piece, but tasty. In general, here at once, in one day, you see so much beautiful that you get drunk and you can’t do anything." That is how Maxim Gorky, who lived in Capri for a total of six years from 1906 to 1913, described his impressions as a “seasoned human being”. There was no point in not believing Gorky, especially considering the fact that he was visited on this island by none other than Vladimir Lenin, who, if we forget about the hut in the Gulf of Finland, proved himself an expert in choosing places for comfortable living.
The organizers of the congress, held under the auspices of ITAR-TASS, have traditionally been the World Association of Russian Press (WARP), as well as the Institute of Russian Culture named after Mikhail Lermontov, based in Naples. It was to Naples that my route was laid, starting at the Dubai Emirate International Airport. Rome was chosen as the intermediate point of travel, from which I reached Naples in just two hours at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, the high-speed train Evrostar.
As usual, the editors, publishers and leading journalists of the Russian diaspora arrived at the event - WARP members, government, political and public figures, scientists, political scientists, business representatives, heads of the largest national media in Russia and Italy, representatives of Russian foreign diasporas - in total 250 delegates from 54 countries. To accommodate the entire beau monde, not even one hotel was enough - they settled right away in two nearby ones. Special thanks to the organizers - both the district and the hotels themselves were chosen with taste, with respect to the assembled delegates. Let them say anything, but for me personally, the "housing issue" has always been of particular importance. Go to my Facebook page (facebook.com / serghey.tokarev), look at the photos taken from the rooms of the hotels in which I happened to stay, and you will understand what I mean.
From the window of the Naples hotel Santa Lucia, located in a mansion of the early twentieth century on the promenade of the Gulf of Naples, a gorgeous view of the yacht parking and the ancient castle of Castel del'Ovo, in which, by the way, the very first plenary meeting of our congress, took place . On this day, Luigi De Magistris, the mayor of Naples, addressed the audience, who, although an hour late, arrived, and from the rostrum called on all media representatives to "never go against conscience and truth." Following him, Mikhail Gusman, the first deputy general director of ITAR-TASS, read out the greetings of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
“Every year your traditional meetings strengthen their positions and make a significant contribution to expanding the Russian-language information space,” the head of state said. Without arguing with either the mayor or the president, the audience met with a standing ovation and continued to work on a program that turned out to be very eventful. Having plenty of talking, arguing and speaking out, the delegates proceeded to the no less pleasant part of the meeting - the procedure for awarding government colleagues with awards. For a great contribution to the preservation of the Russian language and culture, as well as to the consolidation of compatriots abroad, the Government of the Russian Federation was awarded with the Certificate of Honor: Delovoy Express newspaper (Republic of Armenia), Channel 9 television company (State of Israel), Lilit magazine ( Republic of Latvia), Russian edition of Slovakia International Radio (Slovak Republic). The corresponding order was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The final part of the plenary was the election procedure. For a new four-year term, VARP Ignatenko, chairman of the ITAR-TASS board, was unanimously re-elected president of the WARP. The general secretary of the organization was Mikhail Gusman. In addition, the governing body was updated - the WARP Council, which included representatives of Russian-language media from 15 countries located on all continents. In the evening of the same day we were waiting for a meeting with the beautiful - on behalf of the city of Naples we received an invitation to a concert of Neapolitan music at the San Carlo Theater. Not being an avid theatergoer, I can only say that this opera house was built back in 1737 by order of Charles III, and at that time was the largest in the world. By the way, on the square next to the theater I spotted the Gambrinus cafe, whose namesake was better known to USSR citizens in Odessa, where our previous congress was held. Such is the connection.
And the apotheosis of the evening, apart from, of course, a magnificent concert, was another remarkable event - the president of the World Association of Russian Press, the chairman of the ITAR-TASS collegium Vitaly Ignatenko was awarded the International Mikhail Lermontov Prize. It was established by a number of public organizations in Naples and the Italian region Campaign for outstanding contributions to the promotion of international exchanges in the field of culture and the media. The prize was awarded on September 24 at the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater. According to Carmine Zaccaria, one of the founders of the award, from now on the award will be awarded annually to the most prominent Russian and Italian public figures. The delegates of Congress devoted the first half of the day to fruitful work in sections. A wide range of issues was discussed, including: "Social Media and Traditional Media", "Russian Media and Compatriots Communities" and others. In our section (social media), the tone was set by Alexander Izryadnov, director of strategic communication projects at Odnoklassniki portal, whose daily audience exceeds 33 million people. Unfortunately, Andrei could not give a clear answer to the question of monetizing the media page in the social network, only hinting that they are working on this issue. Meanwhile, the section participants, as it is fashionable to say now, sent him an obvious “message” - that network, which will give publishers the first money, will receive an undeniable competitive advantage in the form of quality content generated by professionals. Be that as it may, the communication turned out to be interesting and partly useful, and exciting adventures awaited us ahead!
At two o’clock in the afternoon, delegates boarded a passenger ferry in a noisy crowd and headed towards Procida Island, where we were waiting for acquaintance with local attractions and a piano concert with the unpublished Rossini serenade. As I already wrote, I have never been a theatrical, so in a fun company of my own kind I went to explore the surroundings. The result of our research was a delightful family restaurant, the entire staff of which is an elderly couple of “Aborigines”. The hostess managed in the kitchen, and the owner of the establishment communicated with visitors, acting as a waiter and sommelier. Dear readers, do you know what a “seafood sauté” is?
So I thought I knew! But it turned out - NO! And believe me, it’s not that “the drunken air of Italy turned my head”, and not about hunger or fatigue. Apparently, I first ate sauté cooked by people who grew up on this food, who know how and love to cook it. An attentive reader who has not missed the introduction should certainly notice that this paragraph should contain a colorful description of the island of Capri, which we visited on September 26 by the entire delegation. I honestly fought over it for almost half an hour, but then I realized that there was no point in writing. You need to go to Capri. Better yet, live like Gorky once. Therefore, I left my vain attempts and simply asked the layout designer to put a beautiful photograph in this place.
And thanks to him for not having refused. All good things come to an end once, our congress has come to an end. According to the good tradition of WARP, the last day of the Congress ends with a gala dinner, with the obligatory solemn part, with congratulations, speeches, wishes, thanks and plans for the future. This meeting was no exception. Hospitable owners were waiting for us in the restaurant Le Arcate, from the terrace of which there was an amazing view of the night of Naples. There were speeches, there were congratulations. Many remembered that our previous congress also walked in Arcadia, but not in Naples, but in Odessa. In Odessa we were told that they would be happy to see us in Italy. And in Naples they said that next year we will definitely meet in Belarus. And we told the organizers - "MUCH THANKS! We will definitely come!" As they say, you need to meet more often, and a low bow to those who take on such a burden is to unite the Russian press.
