Lord Meghand Jagdishchandra Desai, British economist, eminent journalists from Pakistan Najam Sethi, Imtiaz Alam, Arif Nizami and Mehmal Sarfaraz will join distinguished scribes from within the country such as N Ram, Shekhar Gupta and Rajdeep Sardesai at Maulana Azad National Urdu University to discuss the Muslims, Media and Democracy on March 17 and 18.
According to Prof. Ehtesham Ahmed Khan, Dean School of Mass Communication and Journalism at MANUU and convener of the conference the inaugural session on 17th March at 10:30 a.m. will feature keynote address by Shekhar Gupta. N Ram will be the chief guest of the session whereas, Andrew McAlistar, Deputy High Commissioner of Britain, Rajdeep Sardesai, Najam Sethi, Imtiaz Alam will be the guests of honour. Prof. Mohammed Miyan, Vice-Chancellor, will preside over the function. Zafar Sareshwala, Chancellor of MANUU, will also attend the function.
There will be two plenary sessions on the first day and three on the Second Day on subjects such as Muslims and International Media, Muslims Communalism and India Media, Urdu and Hindi Media Working at cross purposes etc.
The first day of the conference will also witness a Conclave on Minorities and the Media at the Crossroad which will be moderated by Sardesai and Kamal Khan.
The second and final day of the conference will feature four technical parallel sessions on a variety of subjects. Eminent persons from print and electronic media will participate in the sessions. The valedictory session will be presided over by Lord Meghnad Desai and Jagdish Chandra, head of ETV, will be the guest of honour. On the evening of 17th March noted singer Smita Bellur will sing Ghazals and Sufi poetry. (INN)