World Association Of Newspapers To Hold Press Freedom Conference

By IFEX
The challenges and opportunities of new media for press freedom are the subjects of a major conference in Paris in February organised by the World Press Freedom Committee, the World Association of Newspapers and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The conference, to be held on 15 and 16 February at UNESCO headquarters, examines a wide range of issues around new media's impact on press freedom, both positively and negatively.

Full conference details, including registration information, can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/article12826.html .

Sessions include:

"New Media -- Expanding Press Freedom," an opening session with presentations by Koichiro Matsurra, Director General of UNESCO, Richard Winfield, Chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee, Timothy Balding, CEO of the World Association of Newspapers, and Leslie Harris, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"New Media in New Democracies," which will present case studies and will feature Pauls Raudsept, Editor of the Editorial Page of the Diena daily in Latvia, Fabricio Altamirano, Publisher of El Diario de Hoy in El Salvador and Chairman of the Inter American Press Association's Internet Committee, Levan Berdzenishvilli, a Member of Parliament and an Internet specialist from Georgia, Elizabeth Barrat, Executive Editor for Multimedia and Training at The Johannesburg Start and General Secretary of the African Editors Forum, and Albert Rudatsimbura Byron of Contact FM in Rwanda. The session will be moderated by Johann Fritz, Director of the International Press Institute.

"New Media Under Challenge," with presentations by Soe Myint of Burma, Editor of Mizzima online news service, Sharon Hom, Director of Human Rights in China, Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Managing Editor of the Freedom of the Press Survey at Freedom House, and Anton Nosik, President of the Rambler Search Portal in Russia. The session will be moderated by Abi Wright, Communications Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Direct Satellite Broadcasting/Digital TV/Public Service Broadcasting - Opportunities for Diversity," which will feature Imad el Atrache of Al Jazeera, Saad Mohseni of Tolo TV in Afghanistan, Boris Bergant of RTV Slovenia, Jean Lesieur, Deputy Editor of France 24 international network, and Alfonso Ruiz de Assin, President of the International Association of Broadcasting. The session will be moderated by Henrikas Yushkiavitshus, Media Consultant and former Vice Chairman of Gostelradio in Russia.

"News Online," with Sankarshan Thakur, Executive Editor of the Tehelka online newspaper in India, Neil Budde, General Manager of Yahoo!, Rosental Alves, Director of the Knight Center for Journalism, Nora Paul, Director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota in the United States, and Sawaan Zaidah, Editor-in-Chief of AmmanNet Radio in Jordan. Moderator for the session will be Mogens Schmidt, Director of the UNESCO Division of Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace.

"How Young People Get Their News", which will feature Chris Schuepp, Coordinator, Young People¹s Media Network, UNICEF, Roxana Morduchowicz, Director of Media Education, Argentinian Education Ministry, Evelyne Bevort, Associate Director of the Centre de Liaison de l¹Enseignement et des Moyens d¹Information in France, and Robert Barnard, Founder and Partner, of the Canadian research firm D-Code. Moderator for the session will be Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Readership Development for WAN.

"Bloggers as Journalists/Local News and New Media/Citizen Media", which includes Oh Yeon-Ho, Founder of Ohmynews online newspaper in South Korea, Steve Yelvington, Vice President of Morris Digital Works in the United States, Karma Tshering Bhutia, Research Coordinator for Nepal Community Multimedia, Declan McCullagh, Senior Writer for CNET News.com in the United States, and Ehab Elzelaky, Blog Editor at the Al Dustour weekly in Egypt.
The Moderator will be Mary Lou Fulton, Vice President of Audience Development and The Bakersfield Californian in the United States.

"Circumventing the Censors", with presentations by Gus Hosein, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Gerry Jackson, Founder and Station Manager of SW Radio Africa, Omar Faruk Osman, General Secretary of the National Union of Somali Journalists, and Leonard Sussman, Senior Scholar for Freedom House. The Moderator will be Julien Pain, Head of the Internet Freedom desk, Reporters Without Borders.

The concluding session will include Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director, General for Communication, UNESCO, Gary Kebbel, Journalism Program Officer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and William Orme, Policy Advisor, Independent Media Development, United Nations Development Programme.

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English and French.
The conference is supported by the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, which includes, in addition to WAN and the WPFC, the Committee to Protect Journalists; Commonwealth Press Union; Inter American Press Association; International Association of Broadcasting; International Association of the Periodical Press (FIPP); International Press Institute; North American Broadcasters Association; and the World Press Freedom Committee.


The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and world-wide press groups.