'Open skies' seminar begins today

JAKARTA (JP): The Institute for Press Studies is organizing a three-day international seminar on satellite broadcasting, which will feature a number of respected speakers.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave will attend the event, whose theme is "Open Skies: Toward an Open Society", today at Hotel Horizon. It will be attended by representatives from 17 countries in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, India, Mongolia, Cambodia, Fiji, South Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Those employed in the broadcast industry, intellectuals, journalists and representatives of the general public in their capacity as consumers of news will be among the seminar's speakers, the Institute said in a press release yesterday. They include Abdurrahman Wahid of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Moslem organization and talk-show host Wimar Witoelar from Indonesia, William Atkins from the University of Sydney and Krishna Sen of Murdoch University in Australia.

The seminar will focus on the various policies dealing with broadcasting in Asia, the experiences of those involved, as well as the role of broadcasting in providing service to the general public.

Discussions will also center on the rights and responsibilities of journalists in carrying out their responsibility of serving the public. Some 17 affiliates of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) from the Asia Pacific region will attend the conference and present papers.

IFJ is the largest journalists' organization in the world, with more than 300,000 members. It is headquartered in Brussels. Its president, Jens Linde, will open the conference. (swe)