A message from Gebran Tueni, the chairman of "An-Nahar", the main coordinator of our Lebanese Invitation Committee, to Bernard Margueritte, President of the ICF:

Our Founder President, Bill Porter, must have enjoyed his other role as an honorary British Consular Officer for Le Touquet and its region, during the recent visit of President Chirac and Prime Minister Blair for summit talks in that city.

Bernard Margueritte, ICF President, was a keynote speaker at a conference on the theme of ‘Globalisation – Embracing Opportunity – Creating Synergy’ held at the Panchgani Conference Centre, India.

A Report on the ICF's activities in 2002 and a review of future plans is now available.

Action towards creating a UK Centre for Media Affairs

The ICF was strongly represented at the fifth Euroforum on the theme of “The Media and European Governance” organised by the Association for Europe in Madeira, Portugal, from November 7-10 2002.

Bernard Margueritte, the ICF President, attended a conference organised in Beirut by the Lebanese American University from October 30 to November 3 2002 on the subject “The Media and Arab Culture”.

During a week-long journey to five Dutch cities William Porter, Founder President of the ICF, met with Rob Pieterse, Chairman of the world-spanning, multi-national publishing group. Wolters Kluwer; Hans Verploeg, General Secretary of the Dutch Journalists Association; Herman Bruggink, Chairman of the Dutch Advertising Authority; and other media figures. The Netherlands’ role in working for a free and plural media, and future events of the ICF and their financing were among matters discussed.

William Porter was invited to be a main speaker at the Annual Conference of the Serbian Association for Technology, Culture and Development at Lake Palić, Subotica in the Northern, majority Hungarian-speaking part of the country. A main purpose of the Association is to strengthen the democratic and European progress of Serbia and Montenegro. The theme of the Conference, held from 10-14 September, was to explore the role of Technology and Culture in determining Quality of Work, Products and Life.

Armand de Malherbe, a founder of the International Communications Forum, was awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration, by François Fillon, Minister of Social Affairs, Labour and Solidarity in the present government.