The World Association of Newspaper’s "Media in Danger - Press Under Siege" conference opened in Beirut Sunday with an homage to slain Lebanese publisher Gebran Tueni and other murdered journalists.

More than 3,000 people attended the opening of the conference, which is seeking ways to support the development of independent, professional media in the Middle East.

The opening ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Mr Tueni, the WAN Board member and publisher of the An-Nahar newspaper who was killed by a car bomb on 12 December 2005. The ceremony included presentation of the first Gebran Tueni Prize, which was awarded to Nadia Al-Saqqaf, Editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, for her commitment to the values upheld by Mr Tueni: attachment to freedom of the press, courage, leadership, ambition, and high managerial and professional standards (full story can be found here).

"It has been a bloody year for journalists, the worst on record, and no more so than in Arab countries," said Timothy Balding, CEO of WAN, in his opening address. "At least 44 media workers have been assassinated in Iraq in 2006, for the most part executed in cold blood, out of a world total of well over 100 for the last twelve months, and others have been murdered in Sudan and in Yemen because of their profession.

"Their fate is close to the hearts of all of us here today in a country where the killing of journalists began anew last year, with the assassination of Samir Qassir and Gebran Tueni and the attempted murder of May Chidiac," he said. "These colleagues have paid a heavy tribute indeed to their love of liberty and freedom or expression. But our immense sadness must be transformed, is already being transformed, into defiance and determination to honour their memories by continuing the combat for freedom. Anything else would be a betrayal of the sacrifice they made in full knowledge of the risks to them."

Speaker after speaker, including Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, praised Mr Tueni and his vision of a united Lebanon.

"The press, in our contemporary history, has been the biggest power in leading for freedom, not only in Lebanon, but in the Arab world," said Mr Seniora, who spoke via video link from Government House, where he is besieged by Hezbollah-led supporters seeking to bring down his government,

"The press is not only defending its own freedoms, but the biggest challenge is defending public freedoms, especially political freedom. The right to be in the opposition, the right to speak out," he said.

Other speakers included Mr Tueni’s daughter Nayla, Deputy General Manager of the An-Nahar newspaper, and his father, Ghassan, the CEO of An-Nahar. International and Arab media personalities also spoke, including Abdel Rahman El Rached, General Manager of the Al-Arabiya News Channel, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, and David Ignatius, Associate Editor and Columnist for the Washington Post.

Mr Friedman, who spoke via video, said he hoped the Tueni award would become the Pulitzer Prize of the Arab world.

"I stand in awe of Arab journalists working today," he said. "We know it is so much different where the big question is, if I use this word or that word, might it cost me my life, would it cost me my job, would it put me in jail?"

The conference, which continues Monday, was organized by WAN and An-Nahar to examine how the struggle for freedom and independence of the press continues in the Arab world. It is a continuation of a series of WAN ’Media in Danger’ conferences focussing on countries or regions where violence against the press has become endemic. Three others have taken place: in Bogota, Colombia; in the Basque region of Spain; and in Kyrgyzstan, covering the Central Asian Republics.

In parallel with the conference, WAN has organised a training seminar for Iraqi journalists, is hosting a meeting of press freedom organisations that are monitoring the freedom of expression situation in Tunisia, and is continuing work on its Arab Press Development Project, which encourages the exchange between newspapers throughout the Arab region and supports them in implementing successful commercial and editorial strategies. For more on WAN initiatives in the region, click here.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.