Aidan White

Opening Remarks
Aidan White
General Secretary, International Federation of Journalists

On behalf of the International Federation of Journalists I am delighted to bring a message of goodwill and solidarity to the Forum from our member organisations around the world. It is good to see so many old friends here today, and many new colleagues and partners, all of whom have come to help launch this exciting new initiative.

It is also a great pleasure to be here in Almaty, a city of historical and cultural richness that has already made its mark on the landscape of modern media. Just a few years ago the city hosted the UNESCO Asia conference on media and pluralism, which concluded with an agenda for change that inspired many of us to hope for rapid progress towards a new era of journalistic freedom.
Mr. President Nazarbayev, and Mr. President Khatami, I thank you for your kind words about our profession, for your warnings and for your concern about the future. These words are sincerely taken, but you will allow me, I hope, to reflect for a moment on the painful realities that make life so difficult for journalists today.
In the ten years since the political landscape of this region was redrawn almost every country old and new has proclaimed a commitment to democracy, a market economy and the defence of human rights. Each has adopted national laws that, in theory at least, protect press freedom and prohibit censorship.
How is it then, that today this region still has some of the world's worst ratings in terms of abuse of journalists' rights?

Instead of an epoch of change and progress, we live in an age of political and professional uncertainty in which media and all who work in journalism are fearful for the future.
Around the world many governments and many powerful corporations use the media as a battleground in their struggles for political influence or commercial advantage. Journalists working for state media are often manipulated by government-supporting state enterprises and industrial oligarchs use media as blunt instruments in their struggle for market dominance.

Too many times I hear it said that media must be monitored or supervised or controlled to "protect journalists from outside bullying". In fact, the bullying of journalists and media takes place on all sides. Too often, governments themselves are not beyond applying pressure when it suits them.
Everywhere the social profile of journalists and media staff is as pitiful as their professional working conditions. Many of them are paid poverty wages. They have little job security and in corrupt circumstances with little or no welfare provisions. And in too many parts of the region they work often in the shadow of violence and intimidation. It is not for nothing that the IFJ says there can be no press freedom when journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty and fear.

Today the world is blessed with technology that provides the greatest capacity for sharing information and communication between peoples that there has ever been. There is, too, a great hunger for news and information. But the pressures on the people who bring that news are intolerable.
The casual abuse of journalists' rights seen recently in the Middle East and confirmed every year by the International Federation of Journalists in our list of journalists and media staff killed and attacked is growing.

At the same time the shadow of terrorism, the events of September 11th and the consequences of a new global political movement in the name of security add to these anxieties. Instead of more openness and transparency we are in danger of seeing a retreat into the secrecy and censorship of previous generations.
To avoid such a development we have to avoid the adoption of media policies and regulations that respect only the expedient interests of the corporate and political elite and move, instead, towards a wider and meaningful recognition of the citizen's right to free expression including greater respect for the professionals rights of journalists and media workers.
We need to open the airwaves and free the new technologies such as the use of the Internet from artificial and unnecessary restraint.

We need to adopt strategies for reform of outdated and low technology industries and prepare for new media markets that are not distorted by political preferences or driven solely by the capacity of private enterprise to make substantial profits.
In a period of transition we need a mix of policy that meets the needs of people to have access to pluralist information and that will guarantee media the professional space to work free from undue pressure.
All this must change, but that will not happen unless there is political will to drive the process. Sometimes political will is absent, most often when governments and political leaders refuse to allow free media to subject those in power to democratic scrutiny.

Politicians and others resent scrutiny, particularly when it is critical and damages their public image. But we should all recognise the reality of holding power in a democracy - people will test your words, they will question your motives and they will challenge your policies. When this is done within the traditions of professional journalism it is the embodiment of democracy at work.

After a decade of freedom, the media of Eurasia have taken only the first, tentative steps towards freedom of the press, although some countries have made more progress than others. Enormous obstacles remain, not least in the enforcement of media laws which, in many parts of Eurasia, are just as good as those in settled democracies. But why is it that these days the law, which should be a friend of democracy, is increasingly being used to stifle free expression and to intimidate independent media?

Do not misunderstand me, I am not blaming others to excuse the failings of media. Certainly, journalists have to be better at what they do. We have to be well trained, informed and professional. We have to be mature and confident democrats able to recognise our mistakes and take responsibility for exposing corruption in our profession and rooting out the incompetence and unethical conduct.

It's easy for a journalist to say that, but I can tell you that the IFJ and its member unions and media professionals everywhere welcome the challenge. What is certain is that no progress can be expected in media quality unless journalists and media people have their rights fully respected.

This meeting is about setting out a grand coalition for change in the Eurasian region. We welcome and support this audacious and brave undertaking - to raise the profile of this region, to inspire confidence in the potential for change within media and to build a new solidarity among editors and reporters in the face of the challenges posed by global political change.

It is true that Eurasia is a forgotten region of world politics. Too little international attention is paid to the social and economic crisis that hinders growth and has impoverished so much of the population.
It is time to remind the international community of the importance of this region - and not just for its strategic, military and energy-rich qualities. Here is a thriving, diverse, rich mix of cultures with the capacity to play an important role on the world stage.

This Forum provides an opportunity to focus on the positive. How we - media professionals, working together, and building on the creative traditions of Eurasia, can break out of the cycle of intimidation, complacency and political stagnation that holds the region back and damages its reputation.
The International Federation of Journalists congratulates the organisers for taking this initiative. We thank, too, the political, industry and press organisations, who have lent their support. It is a signal of immense value to those who value dialogue with the political world and the world of enterprise.

This Forum will succeed if it can help to build a confident media community in every country ready to assert the principles of press freedom and democracy. I hope that the Forum will send a strong message to governments and to society at large that media professionals in Eurasia are getting organised. It is a long road ahead, but one along which we must all travel together.

Thank you.