Perils of journalism to be discussed at the break-out meetings during Arab Media Summit 2003

"Journalists - especially political and war correspondents - are working under difficult and even life-threatening conditions in several parts of the world. A Media Summit with the theme of 'War & The Media' could never be complete if we did not discuss such situations," said Mona Al Marri, Executive Manager of Dubai Press Club and host of the Summit.

She pointed out that the Bilateral Meetings would be break-out sessions of up to 20 media people at the end of each day's deliberations. These will be led by leading personalities and will include representatives from the international, regional and local media.

"What we are trying to achieve is a diversity of thought in much smaller, less formal and much more focussed discussion groups. Eight such Bilateral Meetings are planned - four each for each of the two days of the Arab Media Summit 2003," Al Marri said.

The first day's Bilateral Meetings will feature Pulitzer prize winning lifetime war correspondent Peter Arnett who will lead discussions on 'Journalists being a target in hostile environments'; while Dr. Azmi Bishara, Palestinian Member of the Israeli Knesset, will chair the discussion about 'journalism under occupation'.

'Accountability of the media in the Arab world' and 'Arab women in media' will be the other topics for the roundtable discussions on Day one.

Media personalities who will lead Bilateral Meetings on the second day include Tim Sebastian of BBC World who will lead the discussion on 'The Western & Arabic TV Talk Shows: differences and similarities', writer Danny Schechter will chair the discussion on 'Effect of Freedom of Information Act in the US on the credibility of the US media'; and Hamdi Kandil of Dream TV will chair the discussion on 'Current & future challenges faced by Arabic satellite channels.

The annual Arab Media Summit is being held this year on October 7th and 8th at Madinat Jumeirah - Dubai's latest addition to the luxury hospitality sector. This will be the third so far in the series.