Reform in the media

Government Officials Start Twittering

The Federal Service for Financial Markets (FSFR) is beginning to publish its news on the Twitter network of mini-blogging, the agency’s head Vladimir Milovidov said. The address has been registered, and the first news has already been posted. It’s about the enactment of a new FSFR order on financial derivatives.
FSFR is the second agency to use Twitter. The first one was the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS, since April 9). “We wanted information to be offered broader and to be more available. This is why we decided to play with it a little bit,” a FAS official said. If the service proves popular, FAS will create “a big blog in social networks”.
Not only people but also big companies and governmental institutions keep their blogs on Twitter, Milovidov explained his decision to Vedomosti. “I remember being surprised by seeing a news page of the US Federal Securities Commission. That’s when the idea of making a FSFR page came to me,” he said. But the main argument is “the audience itself”: “It’s a totally new class of people who surf the Internet for days on end, visiting various trade forums and retelling the regulator’s news to each other. But why use rumors if one can go to the original source?”
The full text is available at: http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/2010/05/05/233332