This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 28, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The 15th Eurasian Media Forum (EAMF), themed “15 Years of Evolution” in Almaty, Kazakhstan last week was a full day of masterclasses, covering a challenging range of modern media methods and issues, as well as a two-day conference on East-West relations and other topics on the world news agenda.

The forum discussions included the transformation of moral values and the evolution of the media, the incredibly expanded reach of bloggers and social networks, natural disasters and awareness of the need for environmental revolution.

The founder of the EAMF, Dr Dariga Nazarbayeva, who is also the chairperson of the EAMF organising committee, said technological change has affected the younger generation and their access to new methods of communication, social media, smartphones and free Internet access, as well as the impact on the media.

While the forum was unlikely to influence the political history of the world directly, she said, it at least offered an opportunity to try to find common ground, a consensus, sometimes between delegates with diametrically opposed views.

She noted that at a time of growing tension between world powers, the role of the media in international communications is even more crucial than in the past.

“We, the journalists, are becoming hostages of circumstances, and more often mass media are turning from a source of necessary, truthful, neutral information into a propaganda tool with a full set of sometimes dishonest instruments.”