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 A Letter by Hıfzı Topuz to the participants of IAMCR2011 / ISTANBUL
Mr. President,
Dear colleagues and participants,
In 1957, I was President of the Trade Union of Journalists in Istanbul and editor in chief of the Turkish daily paper, Aksam. The Turkish National Commission for UNESCO asked me to take part in the first course of the International Centre for Higher Education in Journalism which had just been created in Strasbourg.
This course, which lasted two months, gave me the opportunity to get to know many researchers in the field of communication, distinguished journalists such as Fernand Terrou, Jacques Kayser, Henri Cassirer, Roger Clausse, Pierre Denoyer, Robert Desmond, Francesco Fattorello, Jacques Godecho, Robert Hennart, Emil Dovifat, Vladimir Klimes, Ralph Nafziger, Martin Rooij, Robert Salmon, Raymond Manevy, Rolf Meyer, Pierre Schaeffer, Bernard Voyenne and many others...
Following the meeting, I was invited by the Assistant Director General of UNESCO to participate in the constituent conference of the International Association for Mass Communication Research, on December 1957, which took place in the secretariat of UNESCO at the Avenue Kleber in Paris.
There were 14 countries, represented by 57 participants and 5 international organisations. The conference was opened by a speech given by Tor Gjesdal, assistant D.G. of UNESCO, who emphasised the role of communication in the modern world and the importance of coordination research in the field of communications.
The agenda for the conference included the development of the Association’s statutes. Numerous participants gave their opinions about the plan prepared by the interim committee. After the discussions, the statutes of the Association were passed unanimously; the council and the executive committee were formed as follows:
President: Fernand Terrou
Deputy President: Jacques Kayser
Vice-president: Claude Bellanger, Marcel Stijns
Members of the Executive Committee: Roger Clausse, Francesco Fattorello, de Gregorio, Danton Jobim, A.S.Khurshid, Vladimir Klimes, Nell Morrisson, Oscar W. Riegel, R.J.E. Silvey, E.B. Simpson and Jean Tardieu.
The research topics proposed by the Conference have since became the subject of research in UNESCO’s programmes and have for many years provided support, in the development of activities in the IAMCR. UNESCO has therefore been able to benefit from the contributions by the members of the IAMCR in the development and realisation of the UNESCO’S research programme in the field of communication.
Having spent 25 years as the official leading the IAMCR project at UNESCO, I am honoured to be involved with its 54th anniversary as one of its founding members. As I am today one of the rare survivors of the constituent conference, I would like to bring to mind all those colleagues who participated in the creation of the IAMCR and who have since passed away.
People such as Tor Gjesdal, Fernand Terrou, Jacques Kayser, Jacques Bourquin, Raymond Nixon, Claude Bellanger, Raymond Manevy, Mieczyslaw Kafel, Vladimir Klimes, Francesco Fattorello, Pierre Navaux, Jacques Godechot, Martin Loeffler, Jean-Louis Hebarre, Giuliano Gaeta have contributed to the success of IAMCR.
Dear friends,
I am very happy today to be with you and to see my old friends from UNESCO such as Kaarle Nordenstreng, Cees Hameling and Zassurrsky.
Thanks to Kadir Has University to organise this conference and thank all of you again. |
