South Korean made head of world newspaper association

(28 May 2002)

1. Exterior of European Parliament
2. Various of Dr Seok Hyun Hong, Chairman and CEO, JoonAng Ilbo, Korea, outside the European Parliament (where meeting was being held)
3. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Dr Seok Hyun Hong, Incumbent WAN First Vice President
"As a journalist and a publisher of a major newspaper in Korea, I feel very honoured to fill this post especially as the first Asian in this Euro-centric organisation."
4. Cutaway of Dr Hong standing with other World Newspaper delegates
5. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Dr Seok Hyun Hong, Incumbent WAN First Vice President
"I think there are two basic missions of the WAN. The first, to promote and protect the freedom of the press, and the second is to develop the newspaper industry as a viable entity. I think these two goals should be pursued along the footsteps of my predecessors. And, as you mentioned, I think the newspaper industry as a whole is going through a very tumultuous period because of the down turn in economic conditions and this September 11th incident so I guess this phenomenon would depend upon the general conditions of the economic situations. So I think we will do our best but as the first Asian president of the WAN I would like to enlarge the scope of the WAN's operations to all parts of the world, especially (as) this time we have a delegation from China and there was a short speech this morning and I hope this will lead to a greater commitment on the part of Chinese journalists and the journalism industry during my tenure of two years."
6. Dr Hong walking into the European Parliament conference hall
7. Dr Hong sitting down
8. Dr Hong speaking with fellow delegate
9. Various of conference

STORYLINE:

Dr Seok Hyun Hong will take the helm of the World Association of Newspaper (WAN) as First Vice President on Wednesday, becoming the first Asian national to be named chairman of the organisation.

Dr Hong, the current head of the South Korean daily, JoongAng Ilbo, will begin his new position in Brussels, Belgium, where hundreds of leading newspaper chiefs from around the globe have gathered for their annual conference.

He said his ambition during his two year chairmanship will be to expand the organisation to include greater cooperation which countries such as China.

Dr Hong was earlier elected to the position during a meeting of the World Newspaper Congress in Hong Kong.

His nomination puts him in line to become the President of the Paris-based WAN in May next year.

If elected to the presidency, he would also be the first Asian to hold the top post of WAN, the global association of the world's press.

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