A series of interviews to be held with leading personalities during the activities of 'Arab & World Media' Conference

The open interviews with the audience will feature HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Kingdom Holding Company Chairman, Sa'ad Hariri, Labanese Parliamentarian and HE Sheikh Ghazi A.al - Yawer, current Vice President and former President of Iraq.

Prince Bandar bin Khalid Al Faisal, member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation and the Head of Organizing Committee, said, "We want the Arab & World Media Conference to be a unique event and a milestone in international and regional conferences that is why we have included these interviews which will add value to the conference and catalyze its role."

He added, "The organizing of these interviews is in line with the strategy of Arab Thought Foundation to support the culture of open dialogue to help build bridges between media experts and decision makers from political, economic and social spheres."

Mona Al Marri, Chairperson of Dubai Press Club said,

"These interviews will be held for the first time during such a conference and the organizing committee has selected leading public figures for the interviews which will be conducted by Editor-in-Chiefs and opinion writers and will address various issues in a transparent and objective manner."

She added, "This new style of open interviews is considered a real step towards promoting the freedom of the media and paving the way towards addressing all the important issues so that the truth is uncovered and the public is able to understand the complete picture."

HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will be interviewed on the first day of the conference by Jim Kelly, Managing Editor, TIME magazine and Jamal Khashoggi Media Director to Ambassador Prince Turki al Faisal. The issues that will be addressed include what is the future of media, which media investments promise big pay-off and what will it take for media to survive in today's competitive economy?

Sa'ad Hariri will be interviewed by Nik Gowing, BBC on how will the Lebanese define their destiny?

HE Sheikh Ghazi A.Al Yawer, current Vice President and former President of Iraq will be interviewed by Ed Bradley, correspondent, 60 minutes, CBS . He will talk about the moves towards democracy, role of emerging media and what to expect in the next five years.

'Arab & World Media' conference is being organized by Arab Thought Foundation and Dubai Press Club from 5-6 December, 2005 at Madinat Jumeirah. A dedicated website has been launched for the event which includes a how-to for participation, the forum's agenda and a detailed description of all the sessions and workshops that will take place during the course of the forum.