Four-and-a-half months after devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, New York was again besieged by the world's media, helping the city regain its image as one of the greatest places in the world. As an act of solidarity with the city, the Forum was a grand gesture--one to which the publisher of this newspaper, Ted Kheel, paid personal tribute. He said he hoped the eclectic collection of business leaders, politicians, key public and religious figures and academics would return again next year. Kheel called a news conference on the closing day to say how disappointed he was that the Forum organizers, in violation of the First Amendment upholding the freedom of speech, had seen fit to bar copies of the Earth Times from being distributed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel where the millionaire Swiss impresario, Klaus Schwab, held court with the movers and shakers of the world for five days.

Schwab, Kheel said, was upset that this newspaper's story on how the majority of media representatives in New York had been barred from the Waldorf, and, thus, from gaining access to his guests, many of whom paid sums as high as $20,000 for the privilege of attending. "This newspaper has been reporting accurately an uproar over the coverage of the great personalities we have here," said Kheel.

Schwab's spokesman, former Emmy-winning NBC producer Charles D. McLean, flatly denied that attempts had been made to bar the newspaper, or even prevent its staff distributing a press release about the action.

But the damage to the Forum had been done. "The way the Earth Times was treated and its reporters intimidated was outrageous and shocking, all for a little bit of accurate bad news," said the correspondent of the leading Spanish daily La Vanguardia. "Your newspaper did a job to be proud of. The Forum have done themselves and their image some serious damage," said Canadian television news reporter Pierre Tourangeau. He was furious at being made to pay $250 a time to plug his tape recorder into the system.

"I would say the action against the Earth Times was ill-conceived, stupid and childish--and now we are all reporting this story. Mr Schwab is hurting himself," said Jose Passos of the big Brazilian daily, O Globo. In some of the worst press the forum has ever received, other major news organizations picked up the story and broadcast it to the world. In a report entitled "Davos Darkness" referring to the Forum's usual traditional hideaway in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, CNN said: "The WEF meeting, ironically, grew more opaque as it progressed." Ironically, because the Forum's own logo states: "Committed to improving the state of the world."

The forum is meant to be like a town hall gathering for the world's most powerful people, a place where Bishop Desmond Tutu can make small talk with the likes of Jack Greenberg, chairman and CEO of McDonalds, where US Secretary of State Colin Powell can meet French academics, where Hamid Bin Ahmad al-Rifaie, president of the International Islamic Forum for Dialogue, can rub shoulders with Israel Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, or where Kofi Annan can talk computers with Carleton S. Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

But none of them could easily meet with the press because of a pass system enforced by Schwab and McLean whereby they gave coveted Waldorf entry badges only to a selected group of journalists from organizations of which they approve. McLean said there simply was not space enough for everyone. But spouses of everyone invited to the Waldorf and many of their friends and family members were given the badges--their numbers higher even than the number of journalists waiting across the road.

The BBC reported that,"largely behind closed doors", Forum participants debated cutting-edge issues of the globalized economy, technology and challenges to world order. But gone in New York was the usual ease with which reporters could meet CEOs and celebrities. This time, said CNN, "the occasional newsworthy person zipped into the neighboring Intercontinental Hotel for a press conferences or to tape sports. Otherwise it was a Mojave Desert of news."

One of the personalities who passed through to meet reporters on the final day was Anders B. Johnsson, secretary-general of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union. He was dismayed at what had happened to The Earth Times and the way reporters were kept at a distance unable to cover events as they saw fit- unable to explain the key issues to a largely ignorant public suspicious of the private deals being made by the world's élite, nervous about their effect on their daily lives.

"Access to the media is an important foundation of democracy," said Johnsson, a Swedish parliamentarian. He said it was the first time that the IPU had been invited to a Davos meeting, and he was pleased that they had invited him because parliamentarians were usually in close touch with their voters on the streets "and we can get the social viewpoint across".

"The problem here is that people are increasingly aware that they are not being consulted in the decisions relating to economic issues that directly affect them, that the resulting activities are not leading to a betterment of their lives and that the international cooperation and multilateral decision-making are, paradoxically, posing an ever greater threat to their interests," Johnsson said. The tan leather briefcases, mobile telephones, portable computers and tailored suits that clog the lobbies of New York's flashiest hotels are a reminder that the Forum is a very useful place for its participants to cultivate contacts in an intimate atmosphere. For this reason, South African President Thabo Mbeki and his finance minister, Trevor Manuel, told The Earth Times they liked the coziness of the meeting and found it useful.

And in a video link from Johannesburg, former president Nelson Mandela in one of the last speeches to delegates told them it was clear since September 11 that they "must play a more forceful role to create a more peaceful world, and do so by helping alleviate poverty."

It was thus, said a close adviser of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (see separate story), that Annan would address the Davos "fat cats". "The forces of envy, despair and terror in today's world are stronger than any of us realized," Annan said in his keynote address to the closing session. "But they are not invincible. Against them we must bring a message of solidarity, of mutual respect and, above all, of hope."

It was, said diplomats, one of the toughest and most outspoken messages Annan had delivered to the Forum which met to ponder this year's theme: "Leadership in fragile times--a vision of the future". "We are entering the new millennium," Annan warned, "through a gate of fire."