Kazakhstan Media Forum to Focus on Iran

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, March 29, 2010 - Senior officials from Iran are expected to discuss their
country's fraught relations with the West during the annual Eurasian Media
Forum (EAMF) to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 27 - 28.

An analysis of the issues that keep Iran in the world news
headlines will be one of the highlights of this year's two-day conference,
along with other topical themes such as the impact of Kazakhstan's current
chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE).

Also on the agenda are questions of media law and media
freedom, the dangers of alarmist reporting of epidemics, the use of online
social networks like Facebook and Twitter, 'citizen journalism' and celebrity
politicians.

The Iranian delegates are Ramin Mehmanparast, the Foreign Ministry
spokesman, and Ali Akbar Ashari, Cultural Advisor to the President and
Director of the National Library and Archives of Iran. Other speakers include
William Courtney, the first US Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Dunja Mijatovi,
newly appointed OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, on her first
official engagement, and Robert Simmons of NATO, Special Representative for
the Caucasus and Central Asia.

"The Forum is a unique opportunity to take the pulse of
East-West relations and examine the crucial role played by the mass media,"
said Dariga Nazarbayeva, chair of the Eurasian Media Forum Organizing
Committee. "And what better place to do this than in the hospitable heart of
Central Asia?"

The Forum has been held every year since 2002 in Almaty, the
commercial capital of Kazakhstan, which straddles the ancient Silk Road
between China and Europe. The event brings together several hundred delegates
from all over the world, many from Russia and the CIS countries, including
media representatives, political figures and specialists in international
relations

The discussions are always topical, with particular emphasis
on issues that affect the countries of Central Asia and their biggest
neighbours, China and Russia, India and Pakistan. The Forum also tackles
economic, cultural and professional media questions.

Prominent participants at past sessions have included former
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, ex-Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov, American strategists Richard Holbrooke and Richard Perle, former
United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and former
Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley K. Clark,

For more information please refer to www.eamedia.org.

Contacts public - Stephen Somerville Mobile: +44-(0)7790935110 or email:
stephen@somerville.eu.com

Contacts public - Stephen Somerville Mobile: +44-(0)7790935110 or email: stephen at somerville.eu.com