On November 9-10, the third Russian-Uzbek media forum was held in Tashkent, organized by the National News Agency of Uzbekistan (RUz) and the Russian state news agency TASS. The event was attended by more than 200 representatives of government agencies, media holdings, IT companies and the creative industry.
The forum's agenda went beyond the exchange of news and joint publications. The parties discussed journalist training, information verification and technological cooperation - areas through which a more stable relationship can be established between the Russian and Uzbek media communities.
The head of the Communications Department of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Sherzod Asadov, suggested developing joint journalism schools, specializations and educational platforms, as well as establishing regular contacts between editorial offices, journalists and bloggers.
The vice-rector for communication education of the Senzh Center Mikhail Kanvetsev proposed to discuss the creation of a joint program lasting between three and five months, providing training and exchange of experience between Russian and Uzbek communication experts.
Another direction is the joint fight against disinformation and the development of fact-checking. Sharzod Asadov spoke in favor of pooling expert resources and developing joint approaches to verifying information.
TASS CEO Andrey Kondershov invited Uzbek media, journalists and bloggers to join the Global Fact-Checking Network - an international fact-checking association established by TASS, autonomous non-profit organizations "Dialogue Zones" and "New Media Workshop".
Uzbekistan sees technological cooperation with Russia as the basis for developing its digital media environment.