Soliven at Press Forum 2002 in Seoul

STAR publisher/chairman Max V. Soliven is in Seoul, South Korea to participate in the Asia-Europe Press Forum 2002, which opens today with welcome remarks by Dr. Seok Hyn Hong, president of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and chairman/publisher of the Joong Ang Ilbo, the Republic of Korea’s largest newspaper and magazine conglomerate.

The opening address, at the Emerald Room of the Hotel Shilla, is being delivered by Speaker Kwan Yong Park, speaker of the Korean National Assembly. The conference is being co-hosted by the Asia-Europe Foundation and the Korea Press Foundation, with Foundation Deputy Executive Editor Sung-Chul Kim and KPS Chairman Kee-Jung Park also greeting the delegates, consisting of 30 editors-in-chief and media presidents from 25 countries in Asia, Europe and the United States. The keynote speakers in the plenary session are Dr. Josef Joffe, editor-publisher of Die Zeit of Germany, Dr. Yoichi Funabashi, chief diplomatic correspondent of Asahi Shimbun of Japan; and Dr. William L. Winter, president of the American Press Institute.

The delegates will meet this afternoon with South Korea’s President Kim Dae-jung in the Blue House (the ROK’s equivalent of Malacañang Palace and the White House).