Saint Petersburg, 4 April 2016. PenzaNews. The PenzaNews editor-in-chief Pavel Polosin has received an award of the All-Russian People’s Front countrywide contest “Truth and Justice” on the first day of the media forum that opened in St. Petersburg in the evening of Monday, April 4.

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Natalya Kostenko, head of the Center for Legal Support of Journalists, pointed out that she was glad to once again see Pavel Polosin, who actively cooperates with the APF experts and lawyers.

In turn, the PenzaNews editor-in-chief stressed that he was particularly pleased to receive the award diploma from Natalya Kostenko personally.

“Over the past year – since April 2015 – we managed to successfully resolve many difficult issues together with the Center for Legal Support of Journalists. I would like to recount three of those. The first is the fact that several authority bodies adopted a policy of not informing journalists about their events. The second is the legal help by the APF after the incident with the PenzaNews photo reporter, when ‘TNS Energo Penza’ prevented him from taking photos of their company building. Thanks to the All-Russian People’s Front, the typical issue was brought up to the federal level. Nobody was held responsible from a legal point of view, of course, but public censure is even more effective in certain cases. The third case that I would like to point out is protection of journalists’ intellectual rights,” he said.

There are still many relevant issues that may be mentioned during the APF media forum, Pavel Polosin added.

Lyudmila Kolomytseva, assistant editor-in-chief of “Novaya Sotsialnaya Gazeta” newspaper, was the second Penza region award-winner of the “Truth and Justice” contest. She also received her diploma from Natalya Kostenko personally.

Overall, the list of winners of the contest in 2016 featured 300 journalists from different Russian regions.

In addition, the Penza region was also represented at the award ceremony by the “Novaya Sotsialnaya Gazeta” editor-in-chief Anatoly Kolomytsev, the “Serebryany Gorod” newspaper editor-in-chief Olga Semeneeva, and the PenzaNews photo reporter Maxim Kostyushin.

The media audience at the forum was welcomed by Dmitry Minenko, civil board chairman of the “Truth and Justice” foundation, first deputy head of the APF executive committe; Vsevolod Bogdanov, chairman of the Russian Journalists Union; and Olga Timofeeva and Alexander Brechalov, co-chairman of the APF Headquarters.

They wished the regional and local media journalists to enjoy fruitful work in the upcoming three days of the forum.

The forum proper will begin on Tuesday, April 5, with topical sections on issues and problems of Russian journalism, and panel discussions with relevant officials, renown experts, and editors-in-chief of large federal media.

On Wednesday, April 6, the Center for Legal Support of Journalists created after the first APF media forum will summarize its activity over the two years and present an updated regional map of journalists’ rights violations. In addition, the Wednesday will be marked by educational lectures and panel discussions on media-authorities cooperation, as well as presentations of modern media projects and services.

The plenary meeting of the media forum will take place on Thursday, April 7.

Moreover, project exhibitions “For Honest Procurement” and “For Lenders’ Rights,” as well as four APF monitoring centers with consultations, will be working throughout the forum.