2009

27.04	Speech by Chair of the Eurasian Media Forum Organizing Committee Dariga Nazarbayeva Dear colleagues, dear guests and friends,We have thought a lot and decided as follows: the global crisis is definitely a colossal event, but even that cannot preclude… spring from coming. So according to the calendar, these are the last days of April, which means that it is time for me to tell you for the eighth time now: welcome to Almaty where no matter what, lilac is blossoming and … the Eurasian Media Forum is about to start off!Parting last April, the attendees and the guests of our Forum could not even imagine what challenges the world would have to face in the near future.The Eighth Eurasian Media Forum is starting off in hard times. The global economy is experiencing the biggest downturn of the past decades, and globalisation – whose fruits we were so proud of not long ago – has resulted in the crisis taking the form of a global one affecting a number of the largest economies.

27.04	Remarks by Secretary of State Kanat Saudabayev at the opening of the Eighth Eurasian Media Forum(1 comments) Almaty, April 23, 2009Dear participants and guests of the Eurasian Media Forum! Ladies and gentlemen!I am glad to welcome you during these spring days to our wonderful southern capital of Almaty where we got together to objectively and competently discuss the most pressing problems of our fast changing world.In eight years, the Eurasian Media Forum has gained wide international acclaim. More than 500 delegates from 60 countries have taken part in it.The subjects for past forums were important problems such as separatism, unrecognized states, the rights of journalists, terrorism, regional security, real and virtual politics. Yet today, the focus of attention is, quite naturally, the global economic crisis.

27.04	Media responsibility for global economic crisis? The media need to be tougher in analysing and explaining global issues such as the current world economic and financial crisis.That was the broad conclusion of the first two panel discussions at the 8th annual Eurasian Media Forum held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 23-24, 2009.

27.04	Kazakhstan ready to help solve global economic crisis – President Nazarbayev Kazakhstan calls on all countries to develop new forms of international cooperation to resolve the worst financial and economic crisis in history, President Nursultan Nazarbayev told delegates to the 8th annual Eurasian Media Forum/In an opening message to the two-day conference held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 23-24, the Kazakh leader said the crisis had broken out against the backdrop of an unstable international political situation.

24.04	Israel Ex-Premier Olmert defends ban on media in Gaza Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced tough questioning over the recent conflict in Gaza from international journalists attending the annual Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty, Kazakhstan.Naveen Naqvi from Pakistan, chairing a session on ‘Media Management in Gaza’, challenged Olmert to explain his government’s ban on reporters entering the Palestinian territory during Israel’s three-week military operations in January.Olmert said this was due to concern for the safety of journalists. “The operation was in an area of heavy civilian population and there was a concern that journalists could be at risk and we did not want to be responsible for any harm coming to them,” he said.