Sunday 30 May 2004 - The Hilton Hotel, Istanbul

9h30 - 12h30

Press Freedom in the Arab World:
A New Era in Sight?

Moderator:

Said Essoulami, Director of the Centre for Media Freedom in The Middle East and North Africa
Said Essoulami worked for ARTICLE 19, the International Centre Against Censorship and co-founded the Euro-Med Human Rights Network before joining the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, an organisation dedicated to the defence of journalists and the promotion of media freedom throughout the region.

Speakers:

Saad Albazzaz, Publisher & Editor in Chief, Azzaman Daily Newspaper, Iraq
Holding an important position in the Iraqi media industry, Albazzaz decided to leave the country in 1992. In 1997, he established the Azzaman Press & Publication Company in the United Kingdom. Today he is the publisher and editor in chief of Azzaman, one of the most popular dailies in Iraq.

Hisham Kassem, Publisher, The Cairo Times, Egypt
The publisher of Egypt’s leading English-language newsmagazine, Kassem is also a well-know defender of human rights and freedom of expression. He is currently the president of The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. The Cairo Times was established in 1997 and is printed abroad due to Egyptian press restrictions.

Daoud Kuttab, Director, AmmanNet, Jordan
Palestinian-born Daoud Kuttab has worked for a number of Arab and international publications, as co-director of Internews Middle East, and in 1995 he created the Arabic Media Internet Network. Today Kuttab is director of AmmanNet, a media outlet that stands out as the region’s first radio station that broadcasts using the Internet.

Walid Al-Saqqaf, Publisher & Editor in Chief, Yemen Times
The Yemen Times was established by Walid Al-Saqqaf’s father in 1991. Eight years later, in 1999, his son took over as publisher and editor in chief of the daily newspaper. Al-Saqqaf is a member of a number of international peace-related and media associations and has both organised and participated in a vast array of international workshops and seminars.

Press Freedom Hot Spots

Updates from Afghanistan and Iran:
Faheem Dashty, Editor in Chief, Kabul Weekly, Afghanistan
Before becoming the editor in chief of the Kabul Weekly, Dashty worked for Commander Massoud, the leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance who was killed on 9 September 2001. Dashty was one of two people who survived the attack that killed Massoud. In January 2002 he was part of the group that launched the Kabul Weekly, the first independent paper in Afghanistan after the fall of the Talibans.

Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, former editor of the Iranian newspapers Asr-e Azadegan, Jame-eh, Tous and Neshat, Iran
The former editor of four reformist dailies in Iran that were all shut down by the authorities, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin spent several months in jail for his work in 2001. Upon release, Shamsolvaezin continued his press freedom activism, and is now a spokesperson for the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom of the Press, in addition to serving as a consultant to a number international press freedom and human rights organisations.

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