During the first six months of 2008, we continued developing our new site: http://mright.hro.org. We started new sections: "Video", "Research", "We Helped Them", "Banner Exchange" (with other sites); the Foundation's blog in LiveJournal (http://mright.livejournal.com/), pages in the Facebook and other social networks.

The Mother's Right Foundation thanks the Russian Promo Company for charitable promotion.

The Mother's Right Foundation's newspaper is the most effective instrument of informing regional organizations of soldiers' parents on the invaluable 19 year experience of the Mother's Right Foundation. This work (publishing and delivery) combines information, coordination, and education activities which, according to our opinion, should be executed by every leading human rights organization.

According to the opinion of the activists of regional organizations, the information published in the Foundation's newspaper is in popular demand among people living in remote places, and very often these newspapers are the only source of information. We use our newspaper to give distance consultations and new information on our judicial practice. In a way, the newspaper heading ‘Remembering All by Name' (name lists of dead servicemen) is a substitution for the Memorial Book which was not published every year only because we were pressed for funds.

During the reporting period, the newspaper had a circulation of 750 copies (volume of 8 pages, format A4). We published and delivered 12 issues. Recipients received our newspaper for free. All expenses connected with publishing and delivery, were paid by the Mother's Right Foundation (donations). We are really grateful to the Foundation volunteers who accomplished the work. (See ‘Work with Volunteers and Probationers'.) For the Newspaper see: http://mright.hro.org/papers

Besides, the information activity is usually connected with shaping public opinion by means of publications in different mass media editions. The Mother's Right Foundation is one of few public organizations which have been working with the press on the professional level. It's hard to overestimate the work of the journalists who inform on our activities: every publication is a concrete and effective instrument of helping families of dead soldiers. Many people know that Russian investigation bodies are not always interested in quality investigations on death cases of servicemen. Publications which appear at the beginning of an investigation have positive results: military investigators see that the public watches the case and thus understand that they should execute the necessary investigation actions to find out the cause of the death.

To facilitate the work of journalists, we publish and deliver our press releases, which are a reliable means of notification and information. Our press releases are devoted to the Foundation project activities.

Today you can subscribe for our press releases through Subscribe.ru and RSS-Stream.

Since this year, we have been delivering our English press releases (russia-mright) to the foreign mass media (we thank our volunteer translators).

The press releases issued by the Mother's Right Foundation in 2009 can be divided into several topics (For example: "Do You Need such an Army?" - stories about tragic deaths of servicemen; "Miscellaneous" - press releases that are not relevant to any topic). During the reporting period, we issued 125 press releases. See: http://mright.hro.org/pr

In 2009, the journalists attracted by our press releases published over 281 materials in different mass media (agencies, radio stations, sites, newspapers, TV programs). See the Report appendix. (* We don't have copies of all materials and point out only those publications whose copies we have at our disposal).

During the reporting period, we continued strengthening our cooperation with regional mass media of the Voronezh Region, the Leningrad Region, the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Orenburg Region, the Orel Region, the Penza Region, the Sverdlovsk Region, the Tula Region, the Chelyabinsk Region, the Altai Region, the Perm Region, the Rep. of Bashkortostan.

In some cases, the Mother's Right Foundation managed to initiate ‘information streams' (death cases of Roman Semenov and Alexander Listyevv; trials won in the interests of the families of dead servicemen, Vitaly Poidin, Alexei Rumyantsev, Anton Tikhon). The biggest information stream of publication was aroused by the news that Veronika Marchenko, Board Chairperson of the Mother's Right Foundation, had become an International Women of Courage Awardee, March 2009. 

The following mass media helped and cooperated with the Foundation: The Ekho Moskvy (13 reports), The Komsomolskaya Pravda (12 publications including issues in regions); The Regnum (9 reports), The Novye Izvestia (8 publications). We are grateful to those journalists who are really interested in the Human Rights protection in Russia.

Very often, editorial offices of regional mass media serve as public reception-rooms. In this respect, we note: The Orenburzhye newspaper (Orenburg City), The Kuyurgaza newspaper (The Kuyurgazinsky District, the Rep. of Bashkortostan), The Prostory Rossii newspaper (Orel), the Dostup Information Agency (Chelyabinsk City), 59.ru site (Perm). 

We consider that the best publication of 2009 was the article "The Heavenly Army" by Polina Ivanushkina (Argumenty i Fakty, June 24, 2009).

In 2009, the Mother's Right Foundation won the social poster contest "Socially Active Media" (organized by the Charity Aid Foundation).  As a result we obtained the cooperation with the best creative agency of Moscow - BBDO. We are planning to display our social ads in spring/summer 2010.

Press Conferences:

On February 19, the Mother's Right Foundation conducted a press conference under the title: ‘Bloody Millions: the Cost of the Issue?" The conference took place in the Independent Press Centre. At the conference spoke the Board Chairperson of the Mother's Right Foundation, Veronika Marchenko. She gave the statistics for 2008 and told that the Mother's Right Foundation was in search for victims in the case of ‘fake bullet proof vests' (the case of Valery Znakhurko, Chief of the Provision Department, Missile Forces, the RF Ministry of Defense).