A Soviet delegate attending the third International Conference of the Jewish Media made it clear that while conditions have improved at home, Jewish issues still cannot be discussed openly in the Soviet Union.
Delegations from 27 countries, including the United States and most of Europe, are represented at the five-day gathering, which began Sunday.
One of the 12-member Soviet contingent at the conference is Timur Yaacovishvili, who is from Tbilisi in Soviet Georgia.
Yaacovishvili said Soviet Jewry is grateful for the work done by the world Jewish media during the years before glasnost and perestroika, when Soviet Jews were bombarded with anti-Zionist propaganda.
Alexander Shmukler, editor of Moscow’s Jewish Information Bulletin, was quoted in the Israeli press as saying that despite glasnost, Israel still receives unbalanced treatment in the Soviet media, and that there is a strong need for the “unofficial” Jewish press as well as the officially sanctioned Jewish periodicals.
President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir addressed the opening session Sunday night.
Other political leaders scheduled to speak during the week include Vice Premier Shimon Peres. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
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