GLEDID’s organizers believe that the Guild can and must serve as an important social instrument of coordinating the accumulation and generalization of linguistic expert experience, and as an entity to represent the interests of linguistic experts in various government, commercial and public organizations, specifically, by defending their rights, adding to their high professional standing in the eyes of citizens and government agencies, promoting their contacts with the mass media and educational establishments, and fostering the younger generation’s respect for the Russian language as the most valuable national asset and a flexible and effective means of furthering the development of public, economic and social relations.

The current social and linguistic situation in Russia is marked by special stress on issues at the junction of linguistics, jurisprudence, journalism and social psychology. The development of glasnost, with focus on human rights, has increased society’s demand for the legal regulation of people-to-people relations in the light of the Russian language’s uses in politics, the economy (documentation disputes), print and electronic media (information disputes), and everyday life.

Considering the growing number of orders for linguists’ expert opinions concerning texts that underlie numerous claims in defense of dignity, honor and business reputation, lawsuits initiated on charges of insult and libel, and arbitration court requests for professional comments on the meaning of separate written passages, phrases and words, it is obviously time to draw some theoretical conclusions and make some generalizations with respect to linguistic experts’ practical experience (e.g., by way of organizing joint conferences, seminars, and methodological studies), and help them in pooling their efforts to produce some unified sets of methods of linguistic analysis and work out some theoretical principles that may lead to better legislative acts in the relevant area, sounder expert conclusions on specific documentation and information disputes, and fairer court rulings.

The qualified Russian linguists (holding the degrees of Candidates and Doctors of Philology) who founded the Guild of Linguistic Experts for Documentation and Information Disputes in 2001 have already acquired impressive individual experience (which should now be made corporate) in providing expert opinions on a variety of matters, including interpretation of the meaning and etymology of words, word combinations and phrases; analysis of materials pertaining to cases involving honor, dignity and business reputation protection claims (e.g., analysis of controversial publications or TV/radio addresses); structural analysis of texts, with focus on primary meanings and connotations, authorship, etc.; interpretation of separate legislative provisions, sub-laws and other documents from the viewpoint of how they can be expected to be perceived by the ordinary literate carriers of the modern Russian literary language, etc.

The Guild was founded by a group of linguists, lawyers and bibliographers, all of them physical persons. Just two months after the Guild’s inauguration, in view of the rapidly growing number of claims in defense of honor, dignity and business reputation filed against domestic media by various legal entities and individuals, we managed, with active support from the Glasnost Defense Foundation, to release a book entitled “The Word’s Value: Linguistic Expert Opinions Requested in Connection with Honor, Dignity and Business Reputation Defense Claims Against the Media”. The book caused enormous interest on the part of media professionals, investigators, judges, lawyers, teachers and students of law, philology and journalism, and human rights activists.

Dozens of qualified specialists are viewing their activities within, and membership of, the Guild as a way of translating into a reality their hopes for optimizing the social status of a linguistic expert and scholar in today’s Russia, and an efficient instrument of expanding their professional knowledge, coordinating their linguistic performance, and getting an opportunity to be protected in real terms against government arbitrariness which still seems quite possible.

The following organizations are listed among the Guild’s active partners: the Law Linguistics Laboratory of Altai State University (laboratory head: Professor N. D. Golev); the Reference Information Portal “The Russian Language” (editor-in-chief: Associate Professor Y. A. Safonova); the Public Association “Business World and Security” (President: FSB Lt.-Gen. [retired] V. V. Kashirskikh); BFG Group (advisor: M. A. Gurevich); the state institution “Forensic Laboratories Center of Russia’s Interior Ministry” (deputy head of the Phonoscopic Studies Division: Police Colonel E. I. Galyashina, Cand. of Philology); the Journalists’ Union of Russia (General Secretary: I. A. Yakovenko); the Glasnost Defense Foundation (President: A. K. Simonov); the Legal Service Department of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry (department head: S. P Nemanov); Temiks Security Services (Board member: V. V. Krasilnikov); the Russian Language Department of Moscow State University (department head: Associate Professor E. S. Kara-Murza); the Information/Political Journalism Resource Facility “Say NO To Drugs” (General Director: A. G. Kormilitsyn); the international law firm “Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer” (lawyer: N. Y. Selyakov); the Forensic Laboratories Center of the Justice Ministry of Kazakhstan (head of the Psychological Studies Division: E. D. Bogodukhova), the open-end joint-stock company “Convent Climate” (General Director: A. Y. Zolotarev), and others.

The Guild would welcome independent (non-governmental) support for its everyday activities and its programs of national importance (in the first place, the organizational and scientific/practical seminar scheduled for October-November 2002, which is expected to involve Guild experts and partners from Barnaul, Veliki Novgorod, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Saratov, Petrozavodsk, Kazan, Kirov, Krasnodar, Nalchik, Togliatti, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk and other Russian cities and regions). It would appreciate any sponsor assistance and be ready to conclude long-term agreements of cooperation with Russian commercial, non-commercial and state-run institutions and organizations.

Guild membership is strictly individual; organizations (centers, university departments, laboratories, etc.) may perform as the Guild’s official partners, but not members. In its activities, the Guild will adhere to the principle of “selection, rather than collection”. Its initial membership fee, which amounts to an equivalent of USD 30, is to be transferred to the Guild’s bank account in Russian rubles. The annual membership fee is USD 10.

The Guild members shall be entitled to receive all of the GLEDID publications and methodological recommendations free of charge; participate in all scientific/practical and methodological conferences and seminars at the Guild’s expense; receive linguistic, legal and organizational support for their expert studies from the Guild’s Board and leading consultants. Each Guild member shall be issued a diploma (format A4) with a color photograph and a holographic stamp, as well as an ID card acceptable throughout Russia.

The Guild has actively engaged in publishing activities. Currently, we are about to release the second (revised and expanded) edition of the book “The Word’s Value”, and have commenced work on a reference/methodological handbook “Linguistic Expert Analysis of Media Texts: A Guidebook for Journalists, Lawyers and Philologists”. Both books will be released in 2002.