Press gathering opens

The eighth annual Asia-Europe Press Forum, hosted by the Joong-Ang Ilbo, opened yesterday for three days of discussion on the theme “U.S.-Europe Relations and Asia’s Place in the World.”
Eighteen participants, representing media organizations in 14 countries in Asia and Europe, met at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul yesterday for dinner hosted by the JoongAng Ilbo’s editor at large, Kim Young-hie, yesterday.
Mr. Kim said this year’s meeting brings the journalists to a country where the relationship between the government and press is tense, referring to the Roh Moo-hyun administration’s media policy.
Formal discussions and presentations begin today with a keynote address by the publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zietung, Gunther Nonnenmacher. The chief diplomatic correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun, Yoichi Funabashi, will speak on “Asia in the Age of the New American Empire” in the afternoon. The International Herald Tribune’s columnist William Pfaff will speak on the implications of recent European-American tensions following the war in Iraq.
The participants are scheduled to meet with President Roh at the Blue House today.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, Assistant Group Editor for the Nation Group in Thailand, said the forum offers “perhaps the only opportunity for Korea to interact with the media of other countries, especially nations in Southeast Asia.”
The meetings should help diversify Korea’s interest from its narrow focus on the United States and Japan, Mr. Chongkittavorn said.
The director general for the monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, Bernard Cassen, said France and Europe in general do not have a clear picture of Korea, and that there need to be more opportunities for exchanges between journalists from Europe and Asia.

by Kim Young-sae