World Media Summit opens in Moscow

Moscow. July 6. Kazakhstan Today - World Media Summit opens in Moscow, which brought together an unprecedented number of participants - more than 300 executives representing 213 media organizations from 102 countries, Kazakhstan Todayreports.

They are presidents, CEO and chief editors of major news agencies, television and radio, as the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, CNN, NBC, Al Jazeera, Kyodo, Xinhua, MENA. Leaders of nine international organizations invited to the summit, including UNESCO, and the delegation of the European Parliament.

The forum, which will be held under the theme "Global Media: Challenges of the Twenty-first Century", is organized by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova will welcome the participants of the summit. At the opening of the forum the chairman of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin will make a report.

The agenda of the two-day summit includes the most pressing problems faced by the media worldwide. This is the development of electronic media, the value of social media in today's media sphere, media and business relationships, and issues of journalistic ethics, the organizers informed.

Representatives of the professional community to discuss the role of media in the ongoing political changes in the world, a model of survival of the media during the economic crisis, the main trends in the transformation of traditional media.

"We want to discuss a wide range of issues in our profession which imposes upon each of us a great responsibility. It's big and small themes: the future of the world's information and its place in a quieter world, the relationship of traditional and new media, the safety of journalists in the media environment to promote the ideas of social and professional responsibility, financial and other aspects of our business", Director General of ITAR-TASS, the chairman of the Organizing Committee Vitaly Ignatenko said in an address to the summit.

"Besides, the Moscow forum is a good opportunity for constructive and useful exchange of views between reporters on a variety of topics: the situation in the "hot spots" to the predictions of the future development of the media. And, of course, it is also a number of meetings with old friends, meeting new colleagues", he said.

In his turn, Director of BBC World Service, Peter Horrocks said he hoped that the summit would allow "a full and frank exchange of views on the formation of a consensus on such issues as the importance of media freedom and the fight against censorship".

Vice president and editor in chief of The Associated Press, John Danishewski also called the summit a very important event for the journalistic community.

"I hope that the issues of press freedom, increasing government transparency and public accountability, as well as developing online social media will be given priority in the forum", he said.

General Director of the Xinhua News Agency Lee Tsuntszyun hopes that during the summit in Moscow, the leaders of the world's leading media "will discuss the factors and challenges faced by the world media, and how you can take advantage of opportunities and the challenges to obtain a joint profit and self-improvement".

During the summit in the building of the World Trade Center will be deployed an exhibition about the history of Russian-language press abroad "Russia, which we preserved".

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