HYDERABAD, INDIA? The world's biggest assembly of newspaper and news publishers started Tuesday with its president condemning the ?wholesale slaughter? of colleagues in the Philippines.

Gavin O?Reilly, president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-Ifra), asked 2,000 delegates from 87 countries to pause for a moment of silence to remember ?the more than 30 journalists who were murdered in a vicious attack in the Philippines last week, the deadliest single attack on the media in history.?

The audience, which included Indian President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, and more than 900 publishers, chief editors, managing directors and other senior newspaper executives, rose for a moment of silence to remember the journalists, express sympathy for their families and condemn the murders.

Witnesses said the massacre was carried out by armed men working for the Ampatuan clan whose members include the Maguindanao governor and head of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

O?Reilly said the murder of the journalists in Maguindanao on Nov. 23 was ?an act of savagery that has written one of the blackest pages in the history of the world?s press.?

On the eve of the 62nd World Newspaper Congress, 16th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2009 here, the board of WAN-Ifra issued a resolution denouncing the massacre of the Filipino media workers.

The board called on the Philippine government to act decisively to bring the perpetrators to justice and to end the climate of impunity that makes the country one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.

?WAN-Ifra condemns vehemently this unique and terrible mass crime, most probably the deadliest ever single slaughter of journalists,? said the resolution.

At the same time, WAN-Ifra said it ?is appalled that 100 reporters have been murdered in the Philippines since 1986 and that 24 murder cases remain unresolved.?

The deaths of the Filipino journalists last week took the number of journalists killed worldwide so far this year to 88, according to a report released by the world association.

Hundreds more have been arrested and jailed, ?most often following sham trials,? and at least 170 are currently behind bars, the report said.

In Asia, the report cited the continued imprisonment of journalists in China, Burma?s mass censorship and repression of independent media, as well as violence against the press in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

It also criticized governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa for demonstrating an ?intolerance for truth, dissent and satire.?

The report further accused numerous African leaders of abusing criminal defamation and sedition laws to punish journalists who expose policy failures and corruption.

The three-day WAN-Ifra gathering, the first to be held in India, will focus on the transformation of the news publishing industry in the digital age.

Alexandra Prieto-Romuladez, president of Inquirer Group of Companies, is among the resource speakers of the congress.

She will talk during the session on ?Newspapers: A Multi-Media, Growth Business.?

With a report from AFP