Global experts to attend Eurasian Media Forum

24.04.2002

International media meeting: Whither Eurasia?
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev will officially open the Eurasian Media Forum, which will be held at the Regent Ankara Hotel in Almaty on April 24-28; the forum's working days are April 25, 26 and 27.
''The response from the international media has been overwhelmingly in favor of the forum,'' says Saltanat Shalakhmetova, general director of the International Foundation of the Eurasian Media Forum. ''Several say that they have always recognized the potential of the region and its growing importance on the world stage. Many agree with organizers that it is a unique platform in which to debate the issues of Eurasia and establish a continual dialogue between Eastern and Western media organizations.''
Who's who in media
Among the keynote speakers, panelists and moderators taking part in the forum are Aidan White, general secretary of the International Journalists Confederation; Chingiz Aitmatov, writer and representative of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to international organizations in Belgium; Dariga Nazarbayeva, chairperson of Khabar Broadcasting Agency (Kazakhstan); Lutz Kleveman, well-known journalist and writer (Germany); Avraham Shmulevich, director of the Bead Arzeinu News Agency (Israel); Robert Elegant, British author and Asia expert; Elisabeth Filippoulis, journalist, ERT (Greece); Lyse Doucet, BBC (Britain); Major General Rashid Qureshi, Inter-Services Public Relations, Pakistan government; John Fiegener, former CNN senior producer, free-lance journalist and co-founder of Vox Box TV; and Jim Laurie, vice president, network news and current affairs, Star TV (Hong Kong).
Other participants have been lined up to make sure that discussions at the forum are lively and informative. They include the following: Imran Aslam, senior editor of the News Jang Group Printing House (Pakistan); Riz Khan, Rizkhan Productions (United States); Nico Haasbroek, editor in chief of NOS news (the Netherlands); Ferhat Boratav, editor in chief of CNN Turk (Turkey); Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, vice president and commercial director, the International Herald Tribune; Joseph Fitchett, journalist, the International Herald Tribune; Henrikas Iouchkiavitchious, adviser to the director-general of Unesco (France); Alexander Privalov, editor of Expert magazine and television host on ORT; and Istvan Palffy, head of the news department, TV2, MTM-SBS Television (Hungary).
Other key participants include Adam Michnik, editor in chief, Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland); Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of the Journalists' Union of Russia and law professor; Leonid Ekel, chairman of the Belarus Journalists' Union; Bjorn Mansson, vice chairman of the European Federation of Journalists; and Andrei Derkach, the Parliament of Ukraine.
Support and organization
The conference is organized with the support of the Khabar Agency (Kazakhstan), the Kazakhstan Television and Radio Broadcasters' Association, the International Journalist Unions' Confederation, the journalist unions of Kazakhstan and Russia, the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS), the Intergovernmental TV-Radio Company MIR, the Eurasia Center at the Judge Institute of Management Studies (University of Cambridge, Britain), Associated Press Television News (Britain), Stefi (Britain) and News World International.
The Eurasian Media Forum aims to examine the concept of Eurasia, to promote the development of its mass media, to facilitate a professional exchange of views on the new challenges faced by the media since Sept. 11, 2001 and to build a continuing dialogue between East and West.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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