India to host World Newspaper Congress

MEDIA: The three-day conference will be held in Hyderabad from March 22 to 25.

Pratap Pawar, owner of Sakal, the Marathi daily, is busy attending to the last minute details of organising the World Newspaper Congress, an annual event of the prestigious international body, World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

The three-day conference will be held in Hyderabad between March 22 and 25. Pawar confirms that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to inaugurate the conference. Formed in 1948, the World Association of Newspapers represents 18,000 newspapers in five continents.

“This is the first time that India is getting to host the WAN conference in the organisation’s over 60 years’ history,” says Pawar. Courting WAN to hold its meeting in India was not easy, claims Pawar, who represents the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) on the WAN board. “The who’s who of the world of newspaper publishing will be here — nearly 2,000 proprietors of the best of international dailies and 400 top editors will attend the meet,” says Pawar.

The WAN team that came on a recce, apparently chose Hyderabad over Delhi, as the venue for the conference. A world-class conference facility, a swank new international airport and six new hotels in Hyderabad probably worked in favour of the Andhra capital. To organise a world-class event though, NS will shell out between Rs 12 crore and Rs 15 crore.

“These are tough times but we have asked some of the bigger newspaper groups and member publications to help out. We have found two corporate sponsors and some newspaper groups as sponsors for the event,” says Hormusji Cama, president, INS.

Interestingly, at WAN, the conference expenditure is borne by the host country, while the participant’s fee is collected by WAN. “The times may be bad, but we will churn out the best event. It is not a matter of the INS alone but about showcasing the country to the international media,” says Pawar.

At the conference, publishers will discuss their problems and talk on the growth of multi-media. The Editors’ Forum will focus on content. The annual WAN Golden Pen Freedom award for the year will be given out to Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi, editor-in-chief of Friday Times, for showing courage in the face of opposition and even threat to life.

A non-profit, non-government organisation — the objective of WAN is to defend press freedom and foster economic independence of newspapers.