|
The curtain came down on the World Newspaper Congress on Wednesday with the election of a new president of the World Association of Newspapers. Events drew some 1,300 publishers, editors and other newspaper executives from 82 nations. In the closing ceremony, Gavin O¡¯Reilly, the acting president, was elected WAN¡¯s new president, and 13 new members were elected to the board. They included Chang Dae-whan, chairman and publisher of the Maeil Business Newspaper. WAN issued a resolution calling on Cuba, Eritrea, Iraq and Nepal to stop curtailing press freedom. The next congress will be held in Moscow.
Meanwhile, about 10 members of the National Union of Media Workers, Citizens¡¯ Coalition for Democratic Media and People¡¯s Coalition for Media Reform were able to enter the auditorium on the third floor of the COEX after a 40-minute scuffle. The groups last year teamed up with the government and ruling party to push through a controversial new Newspaper Law that WAN says infringes on press freedom in Korea.
The 10 handed out English-language leaflets saying Maeil Business Newspaper president Chang Dae-whan was not qualified to lead the Korean Association of Newspapers. As participants were leaving the auditorium, the activists shouted, ¡°Chang Dae-whan, cancel your illegal firings! Disband the Korean Association of Newspapers! Gavin O¡¯Reilly, apologize!¡± The demonstrators, including National Union of Media Workers president Shin Hak-lim, spent about 10 minutes verbally attacking Chang and former WAN chairman Hong Seok-hyun, now the Korean Ambassador to the U.S.
The World Newspaper Congress thus ended as it had begun, with debate over the newspaper law, from President Roh Moo-hyun and O¡¯Reilly clashing in their opening speeches over freedom of the press to the demonstrations on Wednesday.
Many participants failed to understand the ruckus. A reporter from Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenblad, Christian Backe, said the auditorium was the wrong place to bring up these claims, and WAN director Larry Kilman said it was no place to protest over a local issue. He said while he had no idea what the protesters wanted to make known, WAN was ready to discuss it. WAN initially blocked the group from entering, but they made their way in by the emergency staircase.
Global media figures at the WAN congress continued to face questions over the Newspaper Law. In a morning press conference, a KBS Media Focus reporter asked New York Times chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger whether O¡¯Reilly¡¯s criticism of the Newspaper Law in his opening address had not been an attempt to protect conservative Korean newspapers. Sulzberger replied he was ready to accept criticism that WAN was not completely up on local conditions wherever it went in the world, but some principles including freedom of the press were universal.
The online newspaper OhMyNews reportedly asked O¡¯Reilly a number of questions critical of WAN and supportive of the Newspaper Law during an interview with the WAN chairman but has not published the interview.
But some 1,300 international press executives who attended the World Newspaper Congress will have come away with a condensed picture of the situation of the press in Korea thanks to President Roh¡¯s speech and the protests.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
