 | Center for Civil Society International |  |
Elena and Igor Topolev
Co-directors
SOCIAL INFORMATION AGENCY
Koutouzovsky pr., N22, pod.14a
121151 Moscow
Tel/Fax: (7-095) 249-8515
E-mail: [email protected]
ASI and CCSI have a longstanding partnership. Get the latest information on the Agency of Social Information on their description page.
ASI is a nonprofit non-governmental organization founded in October 1994, by the news agency POSTFACTUM, the charitable foundations “NAN” and “Human Soul”, the Pedagogical Association Raduga (“Rainbow”), and others. It is supported by the Eurasia Foundation (US), the Education Development Center (US), and the European Foundation for Freedom of Expression (France). ASI works as an information center, collecting information about the Russian third sector and disseminating it through the media, NGOs and state authorities.
Today non-governmental organizations are an essential and inalienable part of the emerging civil society in Russia. The Russian third sector is young but rather developed for the present moment. It consists of more than 50 thousand non-commercial, non-governmental organizations, operating in the fields of social security, environmental protection, culture and art, science, education, medical care, physical and social rehabilitation. These organizations are quite active, but the general public knows very little about them. Information concerning the third sector appears on the pages of the press only episodically.
Russian NGOs need recognition and support from both society’s common people and state authorities, because it’s very difficult for them to survive in modern economic and social conditions. Many of them do wonderful things for people in this country, but they remain unknown and unrecognized.
Today ASI is practically the only professional agency, working in the sphere of the third sector. The principal lines of ASI’s activities are:
Since the end of 1994, ASI has prepared more than 80 weekly news bulletins containing information about the third sector’s activities, conferences and new programs, its cooperation in various projects with governmental or commercial organizations and foreign foundations, grants and grantees, and much else. These newsletters have swelled from 6-7 to 14-15 pages per issue. Each issue contains reports on practically every aspect of the third sector’s activity: human rights, ecology, the women’s movement, charity, culture, science and education. etc.
Information from state agencies, in particular that concerning legislation in the sphere of the third sector, is regularly presented as well. At present, ASI has 45 subscribers among the mass media: the Moscow and the central newspapers, as well as the TV and the radio programs, presenting the current news.
On average ASI reports are used in newspapers 10-12 times a week; in TV programs, 8-10 times a week; and in radio programs, 10-12 times a week. The agency has also signed contracts for the regular use of its materials in five periodicals.
Another important group of ASI information users are nonprofit organizations. More than 100 NGOs regularly receive ASI publications, for the most part by e-mail. About 30 other organizations obtain them from time to time, by fax or by collecting them at the ASI office. Yet another 1,000 NGOs, more or less, get acquainted with ASI information through the bulletins of the Civic Initiatives Program consortium of nongovernmental American organizations and through the Charity Bulletin.
Our newsletters are also received by the state administration bodies of Russia and of Moscow—the Ministry of Social Protection of the Population of the Russian Federation, the Committee for the Affairs of Public Associations and of Religious Organizations at the State Duma, and the Moscow Mayor’s Office. The other group of ASI subscribers is comprised by foreign organizations which have affiliates in Moscow.
Beginning in May 1996 we will start publishing bi-weekly information bulletins concerning different social problems and ways to solve them.
ASI keeps a data bank on NGOs with which it cooperates. To date, it embraces over 500 organizations. The software at our disposal makes it possible for us to draw on the relevant data by the topic at issue (say, “women’s organizations,” or “legal protection”, etc.).
The agency’s workers are often invited to take part in seminars and conferences on the interaction of NGOs with the mass media, on public relations, etc. Besides delivering reports at the seminars and conferences, we also provide individual consultations for NGOs on the same issues, help them plan their own advertising campaigns and specially inform the media on events held by NGOs.
Presently we are engaged in preparing, jointly with the Golubka center of social and practical education, a special program for rendering NGOs a whole set of services aimed at strengthening their position and at building up their image. This is known as the Focus project.
We see ASI’s participation in organizing public actions (festivals, conferences, forums, etc.) and in the capacity of a press center as one of the most promising lines in our activity. The links with the mass media, established in the course of the past year, make it possible for us to carry out this task.
An important factor for achieving success in ASI’s activities is maintaining personal contacts with journalists. We are trying not just to be on a friendly footing with them, but to make them feel involved in the problems faced by the third sector. To better acquaint them with this sector, we are planning to hold a few roundtables with the participation of NGOs and of representatives from the mass media.
Today, there are 12 people on the agency’s staff, five of them working full-time. All the agency workers are have extensive experience in analyzing and disseminating information. They have worked in the publishing field or in news agencies, and they know how to make the most of computers.
For further information, contact Elena and Igor Topolev above.
For more information or to order a subscription, see our publications page.
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