Conference Highlights

NEWS WORLD 2003 will give senior journalists, executives and equipment manufacturers their first chance to come together and debate the events of a truly tumultuous year. With the war in Iraq and its bloody aftermath still causing massive aftershocks, the ninth annual News World will look at the effect the conflict has had on the world at large and the news industry in particular. But if the war was the most significant event of the year, it was far from being the only one and as ever, News World will address every issue of concern for the news industry and the manufacturers who serve it.

HOW THE WAR WAS SPUN
Why did correspondents in Doha end up feeling they were embed with the enemy? Were the military briefs too brief with the facts, or did journalists over-value their right to know the facts when thousands of lives might be at risk? Were embedded reporters at the sharp end of the action in Iraq, or were their senses blunted by being too close to the troops? And did George Bush's "with us or against us" stance affect the treatment of journalists from countries who refused to support the war? News World conducts its own public enquiry into the war for truth.

PARTIAL TO THE NEWS?
Tony Blair's press mandarin accuses the BBC of lying about the government's "doctoring" of the evidence that led to the invasion of Iraq and says the Corporation was avidly anti-war from the start. American military chiefs, meanwhile, demanded the removal of Fox Television's Geraldo Rivera for being too gung-ho. Across the world, governments are threatening - and in many cases taking - punitive action against broadcasters who breach the unwritten code of impartiality. Yet democratic governments make no such complaints about the press, where freedom of speech and opinion has been a long held right. In a world of ever-increasing outlets, is it time to allow broadcast news journalists the same freedom? And do most journalists even want it?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SARS?
SARS came from nowhere, brought a terrified world to a standstill and seems to have vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving many people wondering what all the fuss was about. Who got it wrong - the medical profession or the media?

DOCUMENTARY MASTERCLASS: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AL JAZEERA
Following the screening of a revealing film about the world's most controversial 24 news service, editor in chief Ibrahim Helal talks about the life and dangerous times of a channel whose singular voice has made it the target for attack - often actual attack - from both East and West.

FORGET THE TANKS - DID THE KIT WORK?
Much of the technology that drives the broadcasts news industry was tested to destruct in the deserts of Iraq, how did it perform and what lessons can be learnt for the future? Leading manufacturers and technology experts swap notes with the people who relied so heavily on their equipment.

THE KIT WORKS - NOW WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT?
The war in Iraq ushered in a new age of mega coverage - thousands of images from hundreds of sources, shot on everything from stately old cameras on tripods to impenetrably grainy satellite phones. Were news organisations so inundated by imagery they could no longer see the story for the pictures?

BRAND IT LIKE BECKHAM
The job prospects of a 27 year-old footballer with a once-famous wife have spread from the soccer pages to the society columns and made headlines on TV news bulletins from Toulouse to Tokyo and from Seattle to Senegal. Thanks to the growing power of entertainment news David Beckham's star shines more brightly than the Old Trafford floodlights. But is this news gone mod, or news gone mad, and how far will television journalism indulge the cult of celebrity in search of an audience?

THE SAFETY CATCH
Despite the most intelligent and intensive hostile environment training imaginable and the supposed security of being protected by one of the most powerful and sophisticated fighting forces ever seen, more reporters were killed in the comparatively one-sided war in Iraq than during the bitter bloodbath of D Day. What lessons, if any, can be learned from the loss of so many good friends and colleagues? And are there ways to deploy reporters in the field that might improve both the story and their chances of staying alive to tell it?

ISLAM v THE REST
In a political climate that is forcing even moderate Moslems to regard the West with hostility and suspicion. Each side complains that the other makes no attempt to appreciate each other's culture, politics or social plight. Are journalists either afraid of offending the hidebound convictions of their audience - or worse, do they sometimes share them? The 2003 News World Debate brings politicians, analysts and journalists from East and West, and attempts to find solutions to the war of misunderstanding that threatens to drive an ever widening chasm between Islam and the rest of the world.

There's more...
The annual News World Mohamed Amin, Lifetime Achievement and Documentary Awards,
hosted by Reuters.

The highly successful Next Generation masterclass series for journalism students.

The return of the acclaimed News World documentary showcase season.

A full programme of
social events

And a few surprise we're keeping to ourselves!