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Press meet to forge broad regiona



Subject: Press meet to forge broad   regional ties 

Headlines 

      Press meet to forge broad
      regional ties

      TWO dozen representatives from
      Southeast Asian independent
      organisations involved in protecting press
      freedom will meet in Bangkok this weekend
      to forge a broad regional alliance to
      deepen their work. 

      The two-day meeting at the Dusit Thani
      Hotel will start on Saturday with the keynote
      speech by Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
      on ''Promoting and Protecting the
      Southeast Asian Press'' followed by panel
      discussions by leading journalists from the
      region. 

      The discussions, which end on Sunday, will
      focus on ways and means to protect and
      monitor press freedom in Southeast Asia
      and the networking of various like-minded
      organisations within the region. 

      For the past two decades, monitoring press
      abuses in Southeast Asia has been done
      through Western-based human-rights
      organisations. This will be the first regional
      attempt to unite existing independent
      organisations and set up a regional
      mechanism to perform this task. 

      Among those participating are the Alliance
      of Independent Journalists, the Indonesian
      Institute for Studies in the Free Flow of
      Communication, the Centre for Media
      Freedom and Responsibility and the
      Philippine Centre for Investigative
      Journalism. 

      The Reporters' Association of Thailand will
      play host to the seminar in conjunction with
      the Committee to Protect Journalists and
      the World Press Freedom Committee. 

      The Nation