On May 31 – June 2 in London the annual conference of the European Federation
of Press Clubs and International Association of Press Clubs was held. The event
gathered representatives of 23 organizations from 17 countries, including Armenia
for the first time: the President of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian and
the Chairman of the Council of “Asparez” Journalists Club of Gyumri Levon Barseghian
took part in it. Assistance to the trip of Armenian representatives to the London
Conference was provided by UNDP Office in Armenia.
At the conference the issues of editing major national dailies, the electronic
revolution in newspaper publishing (“Guardian” example), editing global news
in an international business capital (“Financial Times” example), the coverage
of the activities of European Union structures in the press were discussed.
The participants of the conference had a guided tour of Reuters’ Newsroom and
learned about the informational component of the organization of London Olympics-2012.
In the London Declaration, adopted on the last day, the representatives of
the press clubs reaffirmed their readiness to discuss matters of common interest,
to look for ways for closer cooperation of journalistic associations all over
the world with the aim of “maintaining independent media, enlarging freedom
of the press and improving good governance in our societies”. The Declaration
also made an appeal to journalists “who strive to maintain high standards of
integrity, accuracy and honesty in their work” to joint action in the framework
of local, national associations and international press club networks.
P.S. An interesting observation regarding the specifics of international information
space: many conference participants from European countries when meeting the
Armenian representatives congratulated them on the successful performance of
singer Andre at Eurovision-2006 contest.
