IPI meet in India after 35 years

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 13

The World Congress of the International Press Institute (IPI), to be hosted in India after 35 years, will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, here on January 27. The event will coincide with the 50th general assembly of IPI.

The three-day congress will be addressed by luminaries from different fields of excellence, notable among them being Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the Dalai Lama, Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, Chief Ministers Mr. S.M.Krishna and Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and Union Ministers, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Philip Mathew, Managing Editor of Malayala Manorama, who is on the International Board of IPI, said there will be six business sessions spread over three days. These are : India -- Experiment in Democracy; The Indian Media Landscape; Tensions and Conflicts in the Indian subcontinent; The Global Informational Revolution; Exploiting the Internet for Publishing Companies; and Freedom of Expression in the IT Era.

The prominent foreign speakers will be Mr. I.A.Rehman, Director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; Ambassador Shirin Tahir Kheli of Johns Hopkins University; Ms Barbara Crossette, and the UN Bureau Chief of The New York Times.

The IPI was founded in New York in 1950 by a global network of editors and media executives. Based in Vienna, it represents the collective voice of 2,000 editors, publishers, broadcasting executives and leading journalists from more than 100 countries. It enjoys consultative status with the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

Last time when India hosted the Congress in 1966, it had just 60 members. In 1992, the IPI World Congress was held in Budapest, at Venice in 1993, Cape Town in 1994, Seould in 1995, Jerusalem in 1966 and Granada in 1997. Moscow had the privilege of hosting it in 1998 when the Russian media was searching for an identity.

The choice in 1999 was Taipei where President Lee, who inaugurated the meet, was the first Taiwanese head of state to be elected by direct ballot in 5000 years of Chinese history. Again, while the Americans were preparing for Presidential elections, Boston became the venue in 2000.

An organising committee has been formed for the purpose which is chaired by Ms Shobhana Bharatia, vice-president of the Hindustan Times, Mr. M.K.Razdan, General Manager of PTI as chairman of Business Advisory Committee; Mr. Rajan Mathew, General Manager of Malayala Manoram as Assembly Coordinator, and Mr. Philip Mathew.

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