The two-part Roundtable on "Press Freedom in the Arab World: A New Era in Sight?" and "Press Freedom Hot Spots," also includes editors and publishers from Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Iran. The seminar will be held on 30 May as a prelude to the Congress and Forum, which will examine a wide variety of global newspaper issues from 30 May through 2 June.

The Congress, Forum and Info Services Expo 2004, organised by the World Association of Newspapers, will bring more than 1,000 publishers, chief editors, managing directors and other senior executives from 85 countries to Istanbul for the global meetings of the world’s press. For the full programme, a participants list and how to register (there is still time), click here.

Speakers at the Press Freedom Roundtable are:

  Saad Albazzaz, Publisher and Editor in Chief of the Azzaman Daily Newspaper in Iraq. Mr Albazzaz was working in Iraqi media when he went into exile in 1992. In 1997, he established the Azzaman Press & Publication Company in the United Kingdom. Today he leads the Azzaman Daily, one of the most popular dailies in Iraq.

  Faheem Dashty, Editor in Chief of the Kabul Weekly in Afghanistan. Before becoming Editor in Chief of the weekly, Mr Dashty worked for Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance who was killed on 9 September 2001. Mr Dashty was one of two people who survived the attack that killed Massoud. In January 2002 he was part of a group that launched the Kabul Weekly, the first independent newspaper in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.

  Hisham Kassem, Publisher of The Cairo Times, a leading English language news magazine in Egypt. Mr Kassem, the President of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, is a well-known defender of freedom of expression. The Cairo Times was established in 1997 and is printed abroad due to Egyptian press restrictions.

  Daoud Kuttab, Director of AmmanNet in Jordan. Mr Kuttab has worked for several Arab and international publications. He was co-Director of Internews Middle East and in 1995 established the Arabic Media Internet Network. AmmanNet is the region’s first radio station to broadcast solely on the internet.

  Walid Al-Saqqaf, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Yemen Times. Mr Al-Saqqaf became Publisher and Editor in Chief in 1999, eight years after his father established the newspaper. Mr Al-Saqqaf has both organized and participated in a large number of international workshops and seminars.

  Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, former editor of the Iranian reformist dailies Asr-e Azadegan, Jame-eh, Tous and Neshat. All four newspapers were shut down by the authorities and 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 organizations.

The Moderator for the seminar will be Said Essoulami, Director of the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, an organization dedicated to the defense of journalists and the promotion of media freedom throughout the region.

The press freedom roundtable complements a session in the World Editors Forum on "Arab media: an emerging power." From CNN leadership in 1991 to Al-Jazeera and Al- Arabiya power in 2003, Arab television played a major role during the war in Iraq and its aftermath. But what about Arab newspapers? Do they have a major influence on public opinion?

The session will feature Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Salah Negm, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Arabiya, Dubai; Ian Ritchie, Associated Press Vice President - Global Business, USA and former CEO at Middle East Broadcasting; Hazem Saghie, Editor, Al-Hayat, London; and Gebran Tueni, Editor, An Nahar, Lebanon. Bertrand Pecquerie, Director of the World Editors Forum, will chair the session.

Full programme information here.

Sponsors of the Congress and the Forum now include the Wall Street Journal, the Freedom Forum, the Open Society Institute, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmens Association, Coca-Cola and Efes Pilsen (the Anadolu Beverage Group), the Union of Chambers of Commerce, E-Kolay, the Dünya newspaper, Reuters, Müller Martini, Knowledgeview, Bahar Korçan-Istanbul, Turkish Airlines and the Hurriyet newspaper. The main local organiser is the Milliyet newspaper.

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 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 13 news agencies and ten 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.