ICF MISSION STATEMENT

The International Communications Forum (ICF), founded in 1991, recognizes that the media is one of the world’s most powerful forces for good or ill. The media does not just report and reflect society but often shapes its direction. The ICF aims to:

• strengthen public confidence in the media;
• promote the bonds of trust within democratic societies;
• inspire a commitment to service on the part of those who work in the media.
  

The ICF is committed to media ethics and the freedoms of expression and information. These need to be accompanied by a high sense of responsibility and respect for every audience. The ICF expects of media practitioners the same standards of integrity that they wish to see in all public servants. Through conferences and training programmes, ICF demonstrates its ethos on the basis of people-to-people and conscience-to-conscience dialogue.

William Erasmus Porter
21 July 1920 – 1 April 2009Bill Porter, Founder of the International Communications Forum, has died aged 88 

We have sadly to announce that our Founder, Bill Porter died on Wednesday 1 April. He had returned to le Touquet at the weekend after a very happy few days in St Tropez with good friends. His heart had been weakened by his illness last year. He fell ill on his return and his heart finally failed. He passed away peacefully after seeing his son and granddaughter.

A family funeral was held in le Touquet, France, on 4 April, and tributes were given to him at a memorial service in St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London, on 11 June.

We will all miss his friendship, his great spirit and unfailing energy and good humour and his vision for a better media.

Click here to read tributes to Bill.

The William and Sonja Porter Memorial Fund

We have launched a Memorial Fund honouring Bill and his wife Sonja. The primary objective of the fund will be to strengthen the on-going work of the ICF. The fund will also help support a number of specific initiatives, including these:

• A book that will bring together the thinking on media ethics of many of his friends.
• Storing and cataloguing Bill’s papers relating to his work on media ethics, and making these available for research.
• The cost of the redesign of this new-look ICF web site.

If you would like to contribute to the Memorial Fund, please send a cheque in £ or euros made out to ICF Limited, to the address below. It will also be possible to make a donation to the Fund at the Memorial Service. Donors in the USA should make checks in $US payable to ICF-America, Inc and send to Mr Robert Webb, 5850 Cameron Run, Apt 1511, Alexandria, VA 22303, USA. Donations by US tax payers are tax deductible.

Please reply to:

ICF, 24 Greencoat Place
London SW1P 1RD
Telephone +44 (0)207 798 6000
or Email here.