November 3, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 7, 1424

DHAKA, Nov 2: The first conference of editors and working journalists of Saarc countries which ended here on Sunday called for setting up a training academy for journalists and promoting exchange programmes among news agencies of the Saarc member states.

The conference also urged member-states to remove barriers to press freedom and uphold the freedom of expression and the right to dissent.

The two-day conference, the first of its kind, concluded after approving a set of recommendations.

The 10-point recommendations called for establishing a legal framework to ensure free flow of information within and between the Saarc countries. It also made a strong plea for scrapping all legal restrictions and barriers hindering press freedom in the region.

“Freedom of movement by media professionals within Saarc member countries should be ensured. The visa regime should be relaxed and media professionals should get preferential access to the Saarc countries, as do the MPs, judges and business leaders,” it says.

Steps should be taken to ensure the safety and security of media professionals in the discharge of their duties, recommended the journalists.

A SAARC media development fund, with seed money of $100,000 under the proposed SAARC Information Centre, should be developed according to the agreed formula of contributions by the member states, recommended the conference.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said that the media has become the vanguard of the inexorable process of globalization, an ongoing process that affects every society in some form or the other. He hoped that the recommendations of the conference would serve as valuable inputs for the meeting of the Saarc information ministers, scheduled to be held in New Delhi next week.