News from Dubai

Dubai, 17 January 2005
For immediate release

Press Freedom Key to Middle East Media Growth

Press freedom is essential to the development of media in the Middle East,
where widespread restrictions on freedom of expression are inhibiting the
growth of the publishing business, the Director General of the World
Association of Newspapers said Monday at the opening of the First Middle
East Publishing Conference.

"As long as you are held back by controls and taboos of multiple kinds you
will never realize your full potential, nor play the vital, wider role
destined to the press in driving economic, political, social and cultural
development," said Timothy Balding, speaking to hundreds of regional
publishing executives and political and business leaders.

"The first and most important challenge, and the biggest opportunity, for
newspapers and magazines in developing markets, is to become free from
control and censorship -- including, of course, self-censorship -- and to
serve their readers independently and honestly," said Mr Balding.

The conference brings together newspaper and magazine publishers from around
the Middle East and elsewhere to address the opportunities and challenges of
the regional publishing environment as seen through the eyes of the global
publishing community. The conference is organised by the Dubai Consultancy,
Research and Media Centre in partnership with WAN and the international
magazine publishers association FIPP, which provided the international
component of the programme.

Mr Balding cited several examples of spectacular growth in the publishing
industry when restrictions on freedom of expression were lifted:

- The number of daily and weekly newspapers in South Korea, which saw
drastic political liberalisation in 1987, more than doubled within one year,
and the number of magazines rose from 1,298 to 1,733.

"And that was only the beginning: in every successive year since then, more
and more publications of all kinds have appeared, making Korea a
tremendously vibrant press market, where 5,000 more titles now appear than
in the years before the lifting of censorship and other controls," said Mr
Balding.

- In Brazil, the transition from military government to democracy spurred a
tremendous boom in publishing, accompanied by new standards in quality,
better service to readers and a more stable relationship between media
companies and the State.

"The abolition of censorship -- a decision made by the military itself,
which hung onto power for a further eight years -- occurred at the very end
of 1978, when there were 1,512 newspaper titles in the country. Two years
later, the number had increased to 1,717. The effect on magazines was even
more striking, with an increase from 1,991 of them in 1979 to no less than
3,335 two years later."

- In Taiwan, where political restrictions and censorship were abolished at
the end of the 1980s, the effect was identical: within one year, the number
of newspapers had increased from 31 to 87; the number of magazines rose from
4,052 to 5,493; the sales of newspapers increased from 3.7 million to 4.5
million; and advertising sales increased from 500 million US dollars to 630
million.

"Few of us would pretend this is possible today throughout the Middle East
and the larger Arab world, which, overall, is the region of the globe where
press freedom is still the most uniformly restricted." said Mr Balding. "
There has, of course, been rapid development of Arab news media over the
past decade since our first pan-Arab conferences and we should recognize
this. Standards and expectations have risen, principally due to the
emergence of the new satellite television channels, which have challenged
taboos and introduced much more public debate and openness.

"At the same time, the internet has opened spaces for alternative news and
views," he said. "Few Arab governments have drawn the consequences of the
breakdown of these old barriers and loosened controls over the media,
however, and this is where the real struggle for the development of
newspapers and magazines remains to be fought and won."

Read the entire speech at http://www.wan-press.org/article6161.html

The two-day conference will hear from some of the top newspaper and magazine
executives from the region and from around the world on media management,
technological developments, editorial issues and more. The conference will
also carry forward several initiatives: among them the establishment of the
UAE Publishing Association, launch of the Middle East Annual Publishing
Awards and establishing the Middle East Publishing Forum which will be part
of the conference online activities.

More on the conference at: http://www.wan-press.org/article6143.html

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, 10 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