Media experts meet in Almaty
15.06.2002The Eurasian Media Forum, held in Almaty on April 25-27 this year, aimed to examine the challenges facing the Eurasian region in the new information age. Well-known journalists from major publications and broadcast stations met at the forum to discuss the identity of Eurasia and its role in the world. The media forum was launched by Dariga Nazarbayeva, chairperson of Khabar Broadcasting Agency's board of directors.
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Mohammed Khatami, president of Iran, were invited to talk at the forum. The idea of the Eurasian Media Forum was developed with support from several leading international organizations, including the Eurasia Center of the University of Cambridge, the International Journalist Unions Confederation, the Associated Press Television News, the BBC, the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, the Intergovernmental TV-Radio Company MIR, the journalist unions of Russia and Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan TV and Radio Broadcasters' Association.
Freedom of the press
President Nazarbayev, who acted as host for the forum's participants, pointed out the main challenges for media in the Eurasian region. Press freedom was a key issue in his speech. ''In our constitution, we prohibited censorship and encouraged freedom of speech,'' he said. ''Besides, we have replaced the state monopoly over mass media and laid new legal and economic foundations for development of the information sphere.''
Kazakhstan, home to 15 million citizens, has 1,600 mass-media outlets, of which 80 percent are private. ''Our citizens vote during free elections and enjoy the right to exercise their religions, unite and openly express their disagreements with the government,'' the president said. ''All of this has never happened in our previous history.''
Concerning journalism and journalists' rights, Nazarbayev said: ''Almost all post-Soviet states have faced a problem because it is very complicated to draw the line between the constraints imposed on the freedom of speech and mandatory compliance with the provisions of the law.''
Nazarbayev said he supports the idea of accelerated interaction between countries and cultures. He added that he hoped that ''Kazakhstan, where the ancient Silk Road had through many centuries connected the Orient and the Occident, will help to construct new bridges of mutual understanding and cooperation between states and nations.''
Age of information, or isolation?
In his speech at the Eurasian Media Forum, Iran's Khatami said: ''We are living in a rapidly expansive age, where transformations are pivoting on the axis of newly acquired knowledge and information.'' He talked about the paradox of the so-called information age: ''Ironically, the age of communication, supposed to bring us closer together, has turned out to be the age of isolation,'' he said.
The media age, Khatami added, has created a kind of ''virtual reality,'' which he defined as ''the divorce of reality from its tangible experience and concrete context.'' According to Khatami, the tragedy befalling the Palestinian nation today is a concrete example of a situation where virtual reality reigns.
Khatami pointed out that world media ethics are directly related to democratic rule. The world is currently facing the complex phenomenon of dialogue between cultures and nations, he said. ''Dialogue among civilizations is essential for the understanding, formulation and adoption of a mechanism for the resolution of common problems facing mankind across the world,'' Khatami said. ''Mass media are the forum for such a dialogue, through which the thoughts of people across the world and the orientation of public opinion can be reflected.''
Independent mass media
Representatives of important international media organizations expressed their points of view at the forum. Khabar Broadcasting Agency's Nazarbayeva stressed the difficulties faced by mass media in maintaining their independence. ''Mass media, under the influence of opposition economic groups, produce politicized news,'' she said. ''As a consequence, we face the loss of people's confidence.''
Nazarbayeva added that the more news organizations rely on economic sponsors, the more distant they will be from society. ''We shall clearly determine the principles of the interrelation between journalists and owners, whether it is the state or a private person,'' she said. ''The state mass media, no less than private ones, experience the attempts of legislative and executive bodies and different economic and political forces to influence broadcasting policy in the interests of individuals.''
Addressing the same issue, other speakers expressed opinions similar to those of Nazarbayeva. ''The media should consider [themselves] a self-appointed power,'' said Yuri Goligorsky, editor of the Central Asia and Caucasus Service for the BBC World Service. ''So let's take the approach to inform our readers without distorting information. Readers are smart enough to figure out what is wrong and what is right. We are the vehicles of information. We are not the information.'' Meanwhile, Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, supported the idea of dialogue with political society.
''The forum would succeed if it could help to build a confident media community in every country, ready to assert the principles of press freedom and democracy and to defend them in partnership and dialogue with political society,'' White said. ''It is a long road ahead, but one along which we must all travel together.'' The choice of this path implies that all countries listen to each other in their information policies to create a tranquil Eurasian community.
Although no document or resolution was signed at the first Eurasian Media Forum, organizers are already planning another meeting next year.
Source: International Herald Tribune
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