Executive Report

OVERVIEW

 The Eurasian Media Forum (EAMF), a non-political organisation founded in Kazakhstan to promote East-West understanding through dialogue, held its seventh annual conference on April 24 and 25 as delayed spring weather welcomed participants to Almaty.

 The usual mix of exposition, criticism, compliments and analysis were in the air during formal conference sessions and could be found as well at informal gatherings outside the scheduled meeting hours. The shortened conference – down to two days from the customary three – seemed to concentrate the minds of attendees who were up to the task of presenting lively opinion and challenging questions in the spirit of exchange and learning that pervaded. The tightened agenda did not dim interest in the conference – some 500 attendees representing 40 countries were on hand.

 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev painted a bleak picture of the world political scene, warning that the unequal distribution of wealth in the world was provoking illegal migration, extremism and growing social tensions. In his welcoming speech the Central Asian leader said:

 “The events of the past year make us draw conclusions, which are unfortunately not very pleasant… the deterioration in the situation in the global economy and food crisis have brought to nothing all the efforts the international community had undertaken earlier to mitigate humanitarian risks. In terms of key humanitarian performance the world has reverted to what it was 10 years ago, and achieving the UN millennium goals is becoming problematic.”

 The world was again facing the challenge of separatism, which was causing a real crisis in international law.  “Events in Kosovo and Tibet immediately became part of the set of tools used in the global geopolitical struggle,” he said.

 The leading world nations needed to take resolute action to come up with new forms of international cooperation, which could stabilise the global economy and overcome the lack of balance in the world, the President said.

 “As for Kazakhstan, we can play a substantial role in both the energy and food sectors,” he declared.

 Key issues of mutual interest to East and West were started off with “Cold War – Dj vu,” in the first plenary session of EAMF 2008. Speakers took a look back at the decades-long Cold War era, along with current effects deriving from those days. Discussion sparked strong debate which echoed throughout the two days as participants referred back repeatedly to the observations of Session #1 panelists.

 The spread of various forms of democracy was a theme touched upon by the Forum’s special guest,  Srgjan Kerim, President of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, who said at the opening ceremonies “The media contributes to the process of democratization - by asking difficult questions, providing access to information and representing all views impartially.  It also has a particularly important role to strengthen the rule of law and promote institutional building.”

 Setting a timely tone for the wide-ranging dialogues to follow, EAMF founder and Chair of the Organizing Committee Dariga Nazerbayeva also spoke at the outset, saying “We see new centres of political, economic and cultural forces emerging these days. We see the new architecture of international relations emerging.”

 Kosovo separatism and media roles in election processes from Pakistan to the US were among major topics. The issue of public policy and media in bilingual countries was amplified by Kazakhstan’s commitment to move beyond an already challenging period of reinforcing use of Kazakh to a trilingual environment with Russian and now the planned addition of English to the country’s official languages.

 China’s progress, its issues with Tibet, the coming Olympics and a contention by former US National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski that China should be more of a concern for Russia than the West – all combined to underpin interest in the penultimate major conference session on Day Two, “China Under the Spotlight.”

 After that, once again a light note concluded the formal meetings with a wide array of participants weighing in on the role of “Glamour in Politics” -- a stimulating discussion where the name Sarkozy dominated the issue of  how politics and “stardom” have fused in modern public life across all regions of the globe. 

 Al Jazeera international television personality and veteran news correspondent Riz Khan held forth as moderator of the conference, bringing to the program both penetrating questions and a deft hand at time management. 

 A reported “first” was the combination -- shown through Internet projections -- of several live conference delegates set in a virtual world conversing with four remote  participants represented by their computer-generated avatars. Their session covered intellectual property rights and the protection in cyberspace of individual personalities.

 Leading delegates included senior representatives of the EBRD and World Bank, NATO and the OSCE along with top broadcast and print journalists and a host of think tank delegates from throughout the former CIS, Western Europe, China and the United States.

 Speakers and leading delegates included: Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Secretary General, OSCE, Austria; Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation; Julie Finley, Ambassador of the USA to OSCE, Austria; Dr. Ariel Cohen, Senior research fellow, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Heritage Foundation, USA; Erlan Idrissov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the USA; Marat Tazhin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Jisi Wang, Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, China; Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation; Hameed Haroon, CEO and Publisher, Pakistan Herald Publications, Pakistan; Grigoriy Marchenko, Chairman of the Board, Narodnyi Bank, Kazakhstan; David A. Merkel, former Director for Europe and Eurasia of the National Security Council, USA; Mariya Valovalya, Director, Eurasian Centre for Strategic Studies, Russia; Wilfried Ruetten, Director, European Journalism Centre, the Netherlands; Ioana Avadani, Executive Director, Center for Independent Journalism, Bucharest; Geydar Dzhemal, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia; Victor Gao, Director of the National Association of International Studies (CNAIS), China; Goedele Liekens, United Nations Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador, Belgium; Geydar Dzhemal, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia and many more.