The 61st World Newspaper Congress and 15th World Editor Forum opened at 10 am on Monday the 1st of June.
During the two hour opening ceremony the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra entertained the audience with delightful music. Between musical interludes came presentations about the state of the industry an account of the state of the free press, and a warm welcome by the King of Sweden. Below is a brief summary of the mornings event.

Timothy Balding, Chief Executive Officer of WAN, opened the congress.
He pushed the importance of freedom of the press, as well as WAN and it's impact when founded 1948 in Amsterdam after the war. Sweden was, in fact, he said, one of the twelve founder countries .
This is the third time Sweden is host for the event.

His Majesty, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden held a brief speech where he invited all the participants to Sweden.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden pointed out that the free press has a long history in Sweden.
His Majesty was pleased to talk about Swedish democracy and what it means for the press. This is something which not everybody in the world can enjoy yet. Sweden has a press-ombudsman, said his Majesty.This exists so that the press takes responsibility for its actions and sees to it that nobody gets overrun in a self-disciplinary system not based on legislation.

Gavin O'Reilly, President, World Association of Newspapers opened by saying that the conference often uses the opening ceremony to criticize the host country's press situation. In this case he didn't need to criticize, to the satisfaction of the Swedes at the ceremony. In Sweden you have a press that is as close to utopia as is possible. Since 1766, 20 years before the French Revolution, Sweden had a free press.
A film showing how journalists all around the world have been tortured, harassed, hunted down and killed, showed us the inevitable truth of how the world today still isn't a safe place to make your voice heard, to do your job - to be a journalist.
Sweden invented the free morning newspaper, said Gavin O'Reilly while counting up a few areas where sweden has been a major player on the media scene. Sweden has always been a leading country, he continued.
As Gavin O'Reilly is a big supporter of the printed paper, he urged the strengh of printed newspapers, which has a success story in Sweden. 90% of the Swedish population choose to read a morning paper.

Tomas Brunegård, chairman of the Swedish Newspaper Publishers Association, discussed the importance of the WAN event, working for freedom of the press, as it is under attack in many places in the world today. The speed of change in the industry is extreme, and it needs to turn dramatic change and challenges into opportunities. Free mind and innovation walk hand in hand. Openness is also importan. Regarding sustainability, Tomas Brunegård said that we have to leave something behind that is better than when we started.