Metropolitan Yevgeny of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye proposed introducing a new practice of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the media in the region. At a meeting with media leaders of the Sverdlovsk region, he announced that a priest is planned to be assigned to each media outlet in the region, adding that such an initiative has already been successfully implemented in universities.
«We wondered if we should project this practice onto our media. Why not «assign» a priest to the editorial office: an interesting, intelligent, deep, kind person who would help bridge this gap between the life of the church, the lives of those who consider themselves children of the Russian Orthodox Church, and a particular media outlet», — said the metropolitan.
Editors of independent publications «Vecherneye Vedomosti» and It's My City were not invited to the meeting because the former received fines for anti-war materials totaling about 1 million rubles, and the latter had its media license revoked by Roskomnadzor through the court. Meanwhile, all the gathered media enthusiastically supported the collaboration with the church.
«[This is necessary so that] the priest can talk about his life, his parish, his diocese. So that members of the editorial team can get to know and befriend this person. I hope that on the pages of printed or [online] media there will be a reflection, beauty, and content of these relationships, and the church will become closer to our society with the participation of the media», — the metropolitan was quoted by the portal E1.