International Media Forum

15-16 March 1997

An international media forum in Sydney in March has been convened by the Australian Press Council, the self-regulatory body of the print media, and the International Communications Forum, a group of professionals from a wide variety of media disciplines concerned to do the job better. The forum is a part of the Council's twentieth anniversary celebrations. The forum will be a series of roundtable discussions introduced and chaired by leading international and Australian speakers. It is not designed as a passive exercise where the audience sits back and listens to the invited speakers. Rather it will be a series of discussions in which all participants (about 60) will take part. The invited speakers will act as discussion leaders, encouraging the free interchange of ideas between people involved in the media (widely defined) at all levels. Major themes to be discussed and known guests include:

• The media and race and culture conflicts (Rajmohan Gandhi, Indian author, journalist, editor and parliamentarian; Dr Zaki Badawi, Egyptian-born Chairman of the Imams and Mosques Council of the UK; and Stepan Kerkyasharian, Chairman of the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission.)
  
  
• Reporting great political and cultural changes (Bernard Margueritte, East European correspondent for major French media; and Dr Jaroslava David-Moserova, recently elected Czech senator and former Czech Ambassador to Australia)
  
  
• The aims and aspirations of publishers (John B Fairfax, owner of Marinya Media, Chairman of Rural Press; Paul Chadwick, from the Communications Law Centre.)
  
  
• The need for balanced reporting (William Porter, Chairman of the International Communications Forum, who will illustrate his talk with a videotape of Martyn Lewis, presenter of the BBC's Six O'Clock News; and Richard Walsh, Managing Director of PBL Ltd and Publisher of Australian Consolidated Press.
  
  
• The Environment, Science and Technology - a case study on the need for balanced reporting.
  
  
• Did the media get it right? - Case Studies Seminar.

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