The second Biel Communication Days
Biel-Bienne, 31.03.2003 - The second Biel Communication Days will take place in Biel on 8 and 9 May 2003. Well-known speakers and panel discussions with prominent personalities will illuminate the world of telecommunications and the electronic media, which is in a state of flux. The conference will be opened by Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger.
Economic recovery in telecommunications – is land in sight?
May 8 will be devoted to telecommunications: Solomon Trujillo, CEO of Orange SA, Jens Alder, CEO of Swisscom AG, Juhani Anttila, CEO and chairman of Ascom AG, and the head of the Netherlands telecommunications authority Jens C. Arnbak will be speaking on the topic: "Economic recovery in telecommunications – is land in sight?" from a variety of points of view. In the afternoon John Gage, co-founder and chief developer of Sun Microsystems, and Pippa Norris of Harvard University will be looking more deeply at the subject from the viewpoints of the innovator and the developing countries.
Three parallel workshops dealing with unbundling, the future of UMTS (is there one?) and telecommunications – benefits for the disabled will round off the topics dealt with during this day of telecommunications.
Interpretation of the "Public Service" and global information in times of war and peace
May 9 will be dedicated to the electronic media; the topics will be "How is the public service being interpreted?" and "News sources in war and peace". Contributions to the discussion on the public service will be forthcoming from the international perspective of Urs Rohner, chairman of the board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, from the national perspective of Jean-Bernard Münch, president of SRG SSR idée suisse, and from Norbert Neininger, board member of Schaffhauser Nachrichten (Radio Munot and Schaffhauser Nachrichten) and the topic will be further illuminated by a panel discussion with media experts from the four parties represented in the Federal Council.
Ibrahim Helal, editor in chief of Al Jazeera, Nik Gowing, head of programming of the BBC, Chris Cramer, President of CNN International Networks, and Nicolas D. Lombard, Director of Swissinfo – SRI will discuss the highly topical theme of global information during the war in Iraq.
The great success of last year’s event, with positive feedback from speakers and participants alike, has encouraged the Federal Office of Communications and the city of Biel, as sponsors of the Biel Communication Days Foundation, to hold the event for a second time and to envisage organising it in future years. The event this year should again be a "get together" of the communications sector.
Address for enquiries
Press service OFCOM, 032 327 55 50
Links
Publisher
Federal Office of Communications
http://www.ofcom.admin.ch
