On 9-13 November 2005 Moscow held the 8th Eurasian TV Forum. Since its emergence in 1998 this creative meeting of TV and radio professionals became traditional. The Forum was held under the auspices of the Moscow Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the RF, Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the RF, UNESCO Information for All Programme National Committee of Russia, CIS Executive Committee, CSTO and social organizations.

Today the Forum is a complex cluster of events grouped around creative competition of TV films and programs in eight nominations. Eurasian TV forum attracts new material for professional and public rotation, material yet unknown to the general public. Major part of the works presented at the Forum comes from Russian regions. This year over 30 Russian regions and other countries sent their works to the Forum, often in Russian version.

The Eurasian TV forum aims among other things at development and implementation of joint projects. Many of such projects are initiated in the course of contacts during the TV forums. At such forums communication with colleagues from TV-structures in Russia, Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other CIS countries often grows into commitment to cooperate in the future.

Since 2001 an important component of TV forums becomes the International Congress. It discusses practical issues concerning cooperation of television and radio in CIS countries. The topic of Congress2005 which was held in hotel Ukraine" was Electronic mass media in Eurasia facing challenges of the Information Society".

On 10 November the congress discussions were held under the slogan "On the eve of the second stage of WSIS in Tunis. Television and radio in the Information Society".

The participants to the session "Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society - Global Tasks in the New Millennium. WSIS Action Plan and "Declaration of Broadcasters" discussed problems of freedom of access to socially relevant information and freedom of expression. These basic values of the democratic society are often connected with new phenomena of the Information Society - online media and Internet. The participants agreed that their development still needs participation of traditional mass media.

Among the participants to the session "Outlooks for TV and Radio Broadcasting Development in Russia and Other Eurasian Countries" there was Tatiana Ershova, General Director of the Institute of the Information Society . She made a presentation "Will Mass Media Become a Stakeholder in the Implementation of Outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society?".

Being a member of interdepartmental delegation of the Russian Federation and a member of Civil Society Bureau at the Summit and having actively participated in the process of preparation to this landmark event, T. Ershova mentioned one of the major mistakes made by the Summit organizers already at its first stage and repeated at the second one: journalists were not invited to participate in the dialogue as a peer stakeholder, notwithstanding the assertion that mass media are the main component of the Information Society. That is why despite its global significance the Summit remained an event of low interest; it passed by without much coverage by the journalists. And thus it was hardly noticed by the large public around the globe, who haven't actually understood the essence of vital decisions made at this colossal event, which in point of fact declared a new world order and offered a number of efficient ways to achieve humanity development goals in the age of establishing Information Society and resolving the acutest problems faced by this society.

In order to correct the mistake made in the course of implementation of the Summit outcomes on national and international levels the governments and intergovernmental structures striving to retain the leading role in the process notwithstanding insistent call of the civil society for multistakeholder peer-to-peer cooperation among all stakeholders, will have to shape a clear policy of the Information Society development in their countries, outline priorities of its implementation and consistently abide by them. In this case there will be no need to try to involve mass media in pro-government advocacy, they will actively participate and promulgate possibilities brought by information, knowledge and information and communication technologies for full-fledged development.

One of the crucial components of the congress was tele-forum "Social Responsibility of Television" that was held in the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the RF (Senate). The forum discussed the following topics: "Television and Business", Television as Business", "Television - Investments in the Country's Future", "Role of Electronic Mass Media in Youth Policy".

The participants expressed concern about the state of the Russian television and stressed that social responsibility is an essential quality for all television and radio specialists throughout the world. Today it is evident for all that high level of education and culture of the whole society is a must for successful development of any country in the Information Society. Television is the cheapest and most popular source of knowledge, that is why it is highly important to ensure high quality of its content.

Every respectable country, including Russia, should have a nationwide public television. Unfortunately, Russia still lacks it. But when it appears, which is beyond all doubts, this doesn't mean that all other television and radio channels will be free from responsibility for what is going on in the country.

Among other topics discussed at the Forum there were responsibility to viewers, mechanism of connecting viewer to television, viewer's influence on TV channel. One of Russian TV men once called Russian television more tolerant than the American or European ones. But its present tolerance is merging with connivance. In many other countries there is a moral limit where journalist or operator's camera pudently stop. In our country this limit has practically disappeared, and it should be clearly outlined.

On the 11 November the topic of the day was "Challenge (problems of terrorism and drugs threat on the screen)", while on 12 November the discussion returned to the topic of socially responsible television. The discussion of the problems of management and self-regulation covered the need of control from the civil society, while the issues of channels top-management mythologemes included problems of TV-entertainment, which was considered as a real social threat, and the issue of ratings, viewed both as a "currency" and an illness of television.

International congress was summed up by the session "On the Eve of the Second Stage of WSIS in Tunis". Position of EATR and the Russian delegation in the light of recommendations of the International Conference "UNESCO between Two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society". It should be mentioned that IIS was among main organizers of the conference, which was held on 17-19 May 2005 in St. Petersburg. T. Ershova circulated among the congress participants CDs containing materials of the above conference.