Top media names gather for conference
Some of the world’s top names in news-gathering will be in Dublin later this month for an international conference.
The News World organisation is staging what it calls its most ambitious meeting yet – and convening it in Dublin for the first time.
Previously, the four-day event has been held in Barcelona, but this time it is set to assume a strong Irish influence.
The conference – more than 300 delegates from 25 countries are due to attend - is scheduled to be opened by Bertie Ahern and features a range of speakers from Ireland.
One of the central items on the programme, the final News World Forum debate, is to be chaired by veteran TV personality Sir David Frost.
A detailed examination is also planned on the consequences of last year’s September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington for the media world.
A debate is also lined up on the helping or hindering role the media has had in peace negotiation processes, focusing on the total secrecy that surrounded efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the Middle East and the way that contrasted with the full glow of publicity during efforts to achieve the 1998 Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland.
News World was established seven years ago, and is seen as the sole annual conference for the international news industry.
It opened in Berlin in 1995, moving to Barcelona three years later. The event - starting this year on November 18 in Dublin - also features an exhibition designed to highlight technological advances.
A spokeswoman said: “The conference provides a platform for debate, and the exhibition a unique opportunity for journalists to examine new technologies before they land in their newsrooms.
“Since its inception, News World has provided the only meeting place where journalists who are normally bitter rivals can meet each other as fellow professionals in open debate.”
Bob Collins, the director general of Ireland’s RTE TV and radio network, and due to be a contributor at the conference, added: “The title of this important conference – Prepare to Take Nothing for Granted – could not be more appropriate in the context of what is happening in the world today.”
