Dozens of global media industry leaders are meeting in Beijing this week. The list of companies invited by the International Council of the Museum of Television and Radio to its gathering is virtually a who's who of international media organisations: AOL Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, News Corporation, General Electric NBC from the United States, Canada's Hollinger Group and Germany's Bertelsmann among others, sources close to the event said. Events kicked off last night with a dinner at the Great Hall of the People. This morning, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger is to deliver the keynote speech, while at night the delegates will be received by President Jiang Zemin at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The transformation of the mainland's state-owned media will be one of the themes addressed at the conference, the sources said. The media is one of the last bastions of state control, despite the liberalisation of many other sectors in the past two decades. Even with China's entry into the World Trade Organisation, the opening up to private investment and foreign participation has been slow, although some media companies have made headway in the China market. Last December CETV of AOL Time Warner and Star TV of News Corp secured limited broadcasting rights. Ironically, the organisers of the Beijing event have deliberately kept out of the media spotlight. Several international consulting firms, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Booz Allen Hamilton and Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banks have sponsored segments of the two-day meeting, which ends tomorrow.