Arab Free Press Forum features bloggers, editors and successful independent publishers

The programme for the event, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/tueni_award/articles.php?id=1097 .

Recent additions to the programme include: Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of TelQuel, Morocco; Mohamed Alayyan, Publisher of Al Ghad, Jordan; Nadia Al Saqqaf, Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Times, Yemen; Ali Anouzla, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Massae, Morocco; Ahmed Al-Omran, a blogger from Saudi Arabia; Wael Abbas, a blogger for the Misr Digital blog in Egypt; Rafik Khoury, Editor-in-Chief, Al Anwar Newspaper, Lebanon; and Mazen Darwich, President of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of
Expression.

The event, which is entitled, 'Fighting Back: Challenges and Opportunities for the Arab Press', will focus on four main themes: combining editorial independence with commercial success; blogging and alternative forms of news
delivery; opportunities for cooperation among independent media; and the latest government policies that hinder the independent press.

The event will also feature the presentation of the second Gebran Tueni Award, which annually honours a newspaper publisher or editor in the Arab world who demonstrates the free press values upheld by Gebran Tueni, the An-Nahar publisher and WAN Board Member who was killed in a roadside bomb attack in December 2005. The award, which carries a 10,000 Euros stipend for
newspaper leadership training, will be given to an editor or publisher of an Arabic-language publication whose activity reflects a profound attachment to the freedom and independence of the press, courage, leadership, ambition and
the search for high managerial and professional standards.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business
interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and
10 regional and world-wide press groups.