WAN OPENING CEREMONY | Remarks by Gavin K. O’Reilly, President of the World Association of Newspapers, at the Official Opening of the 60th World Newspaper Congress and 14th World Editors Forum, @ The International Convention Centre - Cape Town, on 4th June 2007.

Mr President, Ministers, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. Good Morning. I have great pleasure in welcoming you to this conference on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum.

As you know, this is the 60th annual assembly of the global newspaper community organized by our association. It is also the first such assembly that we have held on this great African continent, though we have of course organized numerous other events here over the years.

Since our predecessors gathered for the first time in Amsterdam in 1948, Africa has undergone profound political transformation. One after the other, this continent’s nations have thrown off the shackles of colonial rule and gained their independence or, in the case of this country, South Africa, have freed themselves from the scourge of Apartheid and introduced democracy for all citizens.

Yet we must observe that, in dozens of African nations, this political transformation has sadly been deeply flawed, if not stillborn, because of the failure to secure one of the absolutely fundamental conditions for full, living democracy and pluralism - I’m talking, of course, about freedom of the press, which continues to be violated on a daily basis across the length and breadth of this continent.

This freedom, whose defence and promotion was set by the founding fathers of WAN as our first and over-riding mission, is not only a human right to which every African man and woman is entitled, but a pre-condition for the establishment of good governance and durable economic, political, social and cultural development. It is also, I would contend, a powerful tool in the fight against corruption, famine, poverty, violent conflict, disease and lack of education - afflictions of which so many of Africa’s people have more than their fair share.

I am delighted to remark that at this event today we are joined by more than 365 of our colleagues from over 43 African countries, out of a total of 1,600 participants from 109 nations, the second highest attendance in the history of this conference.

This gives me the opportunity to pay homage to the men and women of the press in Africa and to express our deep admiration for their treasures of imagination, courage and resilience, that they demonstrate on a daily basis to bring out their publications, often under very difficult conditions, and so play their role in keeping democratic debate alive.

WAN and the World Editors Forum have decided to profit from our presence here to considerably reinforce the demands of the international press community for an end to the widespread abuse of freedom of the media in Africa.

In the Declaration of Table Mountain, approved in Cape Town by our representative Boards this weekend, we have called on all African states to recognize the indivisibility of press freedom and to respect their commitments to international and African protocols upholding this freedom and independence.

The daily persecution and harassment of the free press must cease. But press freedom must also be much higher on the agenda of African development proposals and programmes.

We are particularly grieved that the African Union, in instituting its Peer Review Mechanism under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, has excluded the fostering of a free and independent press as a key requirement - as it indeed must be - in the assessment of good governance in the countries of this continent.

I would very much hope, Mr President, that you will take a leadership role in trying to convince your colleague Heads of State to put this vital question back on the development agenda. The strong free press that has emerged here in South Africa since the end of Apartheid can and should be an inspiration in this quest.

Perhaps the greatest durable scourge of press freedom in Africa is the continued implementation of ’insult laws’ which outlaw criticism of politicians and those in authority, and criminal defamation legislation, both of which are used indiscriminately in the vast majority of nations that maintain them in order to silence a critical press. These should be abolished.

There are many other immediate measures which could considerably help a free press to flourish and I commend to you the full text of the Declaration, available here at the conference, to review the full list. We make, as the text says, "this declaration from Table Mountain at the southern tip of Africa, as an earnest appeal to all Africans to recognize that the political and economic progress they seek, flourishes in a climate of freedom and where the press is free and independent of governmental, political or economic control".

For its part, both WAN and WEF commit themselves here in Africa today to significantly expand our existing activities to further promote press freedom and development on this continent in the coming decade.

Mr President, this time last year, I stood - in my capacity as President of WAN - in the Kremlin Palace and addressed President Putin on the thorny issue of press freedom in Russia. The year before, it was before President Roh in South Korea. Similarly - and realizing that I shan’t be getting a Christmas card from either of them - I still want to speak frankly on the issue of press freedom here in South Africa, and I do so in a constructive and friendly way.

Before I do, Mr President, I want to acknowledge publicly - in front of my fellow members of the international press - the great commitment that you have personally shown, together with other senior government figures in your administration, in maintaining full support for a free press. I also want to use this occasion to celebrate the clarity, equity and plurality of your country’s Constitution - a Constitution which you yourself helped craft - as an example for all others.

However, that said, I would not be doing my duty here this morning, if I did not properly reflect the concerns of our South African colleagues, who are understandably anxious at the recent attempts here in your country to curb free expression and to limit open access to information and its dissemination, despite the guarantees of media freedom in your Constitution.

I understand that it is only in the last few days - after 8 months of media protests - that there have been positive signs that your Government will now make positive amendments to the proposed “Film and Publications Amendment Bill” legislation, which - if not amended - would have imposed unacceptable pre-publication censorship on newspapers and news broadcasters.

That - Mr President - is to be welcomed heartily, and I think it is appropriate to recognise the constructive engagement between the print media and the Government, and we hope that engagement will continue.

However, at the same time, the media here is still very concerned - and we share that concern - that old legislation which was used by the apartheid government to repress the free flow of information is still on the statute book, despite attempts for more than 10 years to have these laws amended or scrapped. We hope - Mr. President - that finally the legacy of apartheid in all its guises can be eradicated and a free press in every sense of the word can be guaranteed.

Mr President - being on the southern tip of Africa admiring all that you and your country have achieved is inspiring - but alas, I must use this platform and must talk to the tragedy that is Zimbabwe today.

Though conscious that it is a sovereign state, we hope - Mr President - that you will bring your considerable influence and abiding sense of justice to do all in your power to help rectify the flagrant abuses of freedom that exist in that country. We readily recognise that the Mugabe regime sees fit to discount any legitimate commentary from the international community, but we hope that a fellow African nation like South Africa can actively encourage real progress and bring normalcy and true liberty to that country.

Sadly, it is not only parts of Africa that must suffer press freedom violations of the most varied kinds. In my capacity as President of WAN, I have - at this Congress gathering each year - the unfortunate role of summarizing some of the most flagrant abuses around the world, as this video review shows.

You will all agree that this is a very sombre and sobering picture of the immense challenges facing our profession globally, merely to maintain or win the inalienable right to report and publish freely.

This is what WAN is about, and I implore you for your continued support for these aims.

Mr President - as challenging as our role is - I don’t want to leave you with the impression that our global industry is not up for the task - and let me also say, that the issues of press freedom and the economics and vitality of our industry are very much intertwined.

That is why our job at WAN - and this Congress - also extends to the commercial aspects of our industry - celebrating innovation and imagination and creativity and dynamism - that is happily so much a feature of our industry these days.

Indeed, these are very exciting and interesting times for our businesses. Those of you who were at our events in Moscow a year ago - or indeed at just about any conference where I speak on behalf of WAN - will know the extent of my confidence about the future of newspapers in this digital age.

It is because of that - and as someone who has little time for the pessimists - that I am happy that WAN has considerably stepped up its marketing and communication activities to project the sheer vitality, vibrancy and diversity of our industry in the face of waves of disinformation and utter untruths about the future of newspapers. Our industry has begun the fight-back, as you will hear in reports during this conference, and this is a process we will continue to accelerate in the coming months and years.

Despite the basic fact that newspapers still represent the second largest medium in the world in terms of advertising revenues and user consumption, negative, largely groundless commentary continues to opine that we are a ’dying industry’, when exactly the opposite is true! When our CEO, Timothy Balding, addresses you this afternoon with his annual world press trends report, you will hear once again that global newspaper growth continues unabated, with our aggregate audiences getting bigger all the time.

And so at our Congress and Editors Forum over the next 3 days, you will hear many exciting stories of success both in print and online, which I know will inspire and give new confidence to all participants here.

So, in closing, I would like to wish you all an excellent conference... and I would first like to thank - on your behalf - the Newspaper Association of South Africa, and its President, Trevor Ncube, for the remarkable and enthusiastic welcome that they have given to us all. To our sponsors, equally goes our profound gratitude...

And finally, to you, Mr President - thank you for being so gracious as to welcome us personally today. You have been a stalwart defender of freedom in every guise, and we know that your love of freedom will ensure that the media and government will happily coexist and prosper together. Thank you for allowing us to share the incredible delights of your wonderful country and your peoples.