ABU GA puts a spotlight on public interest journalism

One of the  leading journalism experts is headlining a seminar on public interest media at this year’s ABU General Assembly in Hanoi.

Aidan White, Director of the Ethical Journalism Network, is the keynote speaker at a special ABU – Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) forum on “Building Public Trust in Media: Asia-Pacific Perspective”. 

He will describe how in traditional journalism and in the face of the social media explosion, media professionals struggle to maintain professionalism and their ethical base – a respect for truth and accuracy, to do no harm, to be independent and to be accountable.

“But they do so in the face of turbulent change across the media industry which has led to a decline of investment in journalism and editorial work across the globe,” he says. “The result has been falling standards, a loss of public trust and in some areas the growth of more corrupt, partisan and unreliable journalism.”

The forum on 26 October 2013, co-sponsored by the FES, is an event ABU Secretary-General Dr Javad Mottaghi says will have an Asia-Pacific focus, “reflecting the importance of the issue in our region today and the urgent need to address some of the challenges we face in a rapidly evolving media world.

“Forums such as this have never been more important,” he says, urging ABU members around the world to register.

The ABU General Assembly this year takes place from 23-29 October 2013 at the Melia Hanoi Hotel in the central Hoan Kiem District of the Vietnamese capital.

Several hundred broadcasting industry leaders and working professionals are expected to gather for a week of workshops, seminars, official meetings and special forums on the state of the industry.

ABU members can register here and those interested in attending the ABU/FES Seminar should contact olya@abu.org.my or Yvonne@abu.org.my.