<b>26 September, 2011<br /> <br /> The moderator of the session is Jim Clancy, Anchor and correspondent, CNN International, Atlanta, USA; and the panelist in the discussion comprised of: Shatha Al-Harazi, Human Right Journalist, Yemen Times, Sana’a, Yemen, Charles M. Sennott, Executve Editor and Vice President, GlobalPost, Boston, USA and Hosam El Sokkari, Head of Audience, Yahoo! Middle East Dubai, UAE</b>
Chairman of Azerbaijan Press Council, Aflatun Amashov, the Chairman of International Eurasia Press Fund and Chairman of the IPI National Committee Azerbaijan, Umud Mirzayev, the Executive Director of the Azeri Press Agency, Vusale Abishova and the Head of Programs Development and International Relations, Nick Nwolisa had several discussions with media representatives and global journalists.
During these meetings, the Azerbaijan media representatives gave information about the media climate in Azerbaijan. The Vice President of the GlobalPost, was interested in establishing relationship with media agency in Azerbaijan because in his opinions, not much is talked about Azerbaijan in global scale. Jim Clancy of the CNN, USA has already informed about his proposed visit to Azerbaijan in November to do stories for the CNN IReport.
During the session discussion that was focused more on the media and the uprisings in North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, the moderators and panelists elaborated more on the role social and new media is playing in the 21st century.
Some of the views of the panelists are that the role of the social media might be over exaggerated, but there is no denying the role of social and new media in the great revolution that has now changed the Arab leagues. Instead of the calling the revolution “facebook” or “twitter” revolution, it should instead be called the country revolution, like the “Egyptian Revolution”, the “Tunisian Revolution” because it was the people that moved for these changes.
However, it was agreed that there is a need to merge the old, traditional media and the new media because even if the access to new media is huge and in some instances, unlimited, but the new media still need to work in synergy with the traditional media, Radio, TV, and Newspaper, to give amplified voice to issues. Another point of interest is that journalists using the new media should have some sort of monitoring but, there should be a cautiousness of when self censorship becomes a problem.
The IPI delegates would be part of other sessions lined up in the world congress. The topics for discussions would continue to center on the general theme of the congress which is: “The Asian Media Century? 21st Century Developments from New Technologies to Press Freedom”.