The IAPA has never cancelled any of its meetings, as it regards the defense of freedom of the press in the Western Hemisphere to be of utmost importance, even when it held its General Assembly in Washington, D.C., barely one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
This traditional IAPA meeting, to be held in San Salvador March 21-24, will be formally opened by El Salvador’s President Francisco Flores on Sunday (March 23), although sessions will have begun the previous day, with representatives of each country in the Americas presenting their reports on the state of press freedom.
The murder of journalists in Colombia, harassment of independent reporters in Cuba and abuse unleashed against the press in Venezuela are some of the issues that the IAPA will be raising in El Salvador.
More than 250 editors, publishers and journalists will also debate the increasing role of women in the news media, while the importance and impact of news photography will be the subject explored in a series of four seminars to be held during the meeting.
The IAPA will take the opportunity of the meeting to announce the start of a promotional campaign to combat impunity surrounding crimes against journalists in the hemisphere. The campaign will consist of a serious of announcements that will be published in IAPA member newspapers throughout the Americas as well as an intensive training program for journalists working in conflict zones.
Within its Chapultepec project the IAPA will also announce a series of national
forums on justice and the press, to be held in Chile on May 15, Brazil at the
end of August and in Nicaragua and Panama in November.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
