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World Media Summit to open in Moscow

The two-day summit will focus on key issues related to mass media all over the world

MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — The World Media Summit will open in Moscow on Thursday, July 5.

It involves over 300 top managers of 213 mass media from 102 countries. These are presidents, directors general and chief editors of such news agencies, television channels and radio stations as Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, NBC, Al Jazeera, Kyodo, Xinhua, MENA. Leaders of nine international organizations, including UNESCO, as well as the delegation of the European Parliament, are invited to take part in the summit.

The forum entitled “Global Media: Challenges of the 21st Century” is organized by the Itar-Tass news agency. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova will address the participants in the forum.

State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin will open the forum. He will also answer questions of the audience.

The two-day summit will focus on key issues related to mass media all over the world. These are the development of electronic mass media, the significance of social networks in the present-day world, relationship between mass media and business, and problems of journalistic ethics.

Representatives of mass media are to discuss the role of the press in world political changes, the model of mass media survival amidst the economic crisis and key tendencies for transformations of traditional mass media.

“We want to discuss a wide range of issues related to our profession, which lay big responsibility on each of us. These are big and small topics: the future of world information, its place in the supra-dynamic world, relationship between traditional and new media, security of journalists, the promotion of social and professional responsibility, financial and other aspects of our activity,” Itar-Tass Director-General Vitaly Ignatenko said in his greetings message.

“In addition the Moscow forum is a good opportunity to exchange views in a constructive atmosphere on different issues – from the situation in trouble spots to further development of mass media. Of course, these are numerous meetings of old friends and meetings with new colleagues,” he noted.

For his part, BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks told Itar-Tass that he hoped on an exhaustive and sincere exchange of views to reach consensus on such issues as the freedom of mass media and the fight against censorship.

Associated Press senior managing editor John Daniszewski said he considered the summit a very important event for the journalistic community. He expressed hope that the freedom of the press, transparency of the government work and its control by the society, and the development of social networks in the Internet will prioritize at the forum.

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