Sat17Nov - LONDON - Media War Conference

[xmasdale]

In a message dated 14/11/2007 08:27:32 GMT Standard Time,
email: mwaw@btinternet.com
Media Workers Against the War
http://www.mwaw.net

In this mailing:
1. Roy Greenslade: "Can you afford to miss this event?"
2. Video: John Pilger on war and the media
3. Reserve your place now – buy the ticket later
4. How to get there
5. Final agenda


1. Roy Greenslade: "Can you afford to miss this event?"

The Guardian media commentator and professor of Journalism at City University devoted his blog on Monday to MWAW's conference on Saturday and asked: "Can you avoid to miss it?"

Read it here: http://tinyurl.com/2l87or

And here are the conference details:

The First Casualty? War, Truth and the Media Today

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17
2.00pm-6.30pm
(Registration from 1.30pm)
London School of Economics, Aldwych, London, WC2A 2AE
Tickets £10 / £7 concessions

Speakers include Peter Wilby, Andrew Gilligan, Michelle Stanistreet, Nick Davies, Moazzam Begg, Tony Benn and many others

The event will ask what we have to learn from the coverage of the war in Iraq, what to avoid in reporting Iran, what the BBC can do to stand up to government bullying, and what coverage of modern warfare should look like.

Details and tickets: http://mwaw.net/conference/

Hosted by Media Workers Against the War
Press inquiries: 07810 641 459
Other inquiries: 07801 789 297


2. Video: John Pilger on war and the media

The conference will open with short video interviews, filmed exclusively by Media Workers Against the War, with top journalists unable to attend the event, including John Pilger, Martin Bell, Navid Akhtar, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, John Kampfner, Jonathan Steele, Jeremy Dear and others.

Excerpts from the interview with John Pilger - here is a taster of what you will see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuf9GG_WhBQ


3. Reserve your place now – buy the ticket later

If you'd rather not buy a ticket online, and it's late to do so by post, reply to this email to reserve yourself a place. You can pick up the ticket on the day


4. How to get there

The Old Theatre at the London School of Economics is on Houghton Street, just off Aldwych.

The nearest tube station is Holborn. It's a 7-minute walk from there, or it's one stop on any bus from the station heading south along Kingsway.

Here is a map of the area:
http://tinyurl.com/yvcaq9

And here is a map of the venue – the conference is being held in the building marked A:
http://tinyurl.com/2toxw


5. Final Agenda

1.30pm Registration

2pm - Welcome and video showing

2.15 – 3.15pm Plenary: The First Casualty: War, truth and the media today

With Tony Benn, Peter Wilby, Sami Ramadani

3.45 – 4.45pm Workshops

1. Afghanistan: Britain's other war

with Rachel Morarjee, Financial Times reporter in Kabul 2003-2007

2. Journalists in the war zone

with author Philip Knightley and Xavier Couso, brother of Jose Couso, Spanish camerman killed by US troops in Iraq

3. War bias in the media: the evidence

with Piers Robinson of Manchester University and Des Freedman of Goldsmith's College

4. The media and the anti-war movement

with Peter Wilby of the Guardian and Jane Shallice of the Stop the War Coaliton

5. Islamophobia: is there a media problem?

with former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg and Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ president

6. War plan Iran

With Somaye Zadeh of Campaign Iran, Julie-Anne Davies, editor of Free Press, and Addas Ebalat, Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran


4.45-5.15 Break

5.15 Plenary: Making a difference - towards a critical media

With Andrew Gilligan, Andrew Murray, Nick Davies, BBC activist

6.45pm Conference ends


http://mwaw.net/conference/

Inquiries: 07801 789 297

[Mark Gobell]

Link to Nick Davies' speech at this conference.

Nick Davies: How “flat earth” news is killing journalism

Speech at the conference “The First Casualty? War, Truth and the Media Today”, London School of Economics, November 17, 2007. Nick Davies is an award-winning investigative reporter who writes regularly for the Guardian.

I’m not an expert on Iran or Iraq. I think I’m here partly because I’ve been a hack, a reporter, not just a journalist but a guy running around with a notebook and a pen, for an extraordinarily, ridiculously long time, but also because in the last couple of years I’ve decided to do something rather weird which is to interrogate my colleagues, which has turned into a book to be published next year called Flat Earth News.

Extracts: