Colombia’s president will be unable to attend the opening ceremony due to scheduling commitments.
Miami (October 19, 2026)— Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán will open the 82nd General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), to be held in the Colombian capital from October 22 to 25. The gathering will bring together more than 70 prominent journalism leaders, media executives, and specialists from the Americas and Spain to discuss challenges to press freedom and the future of the news industry.
The opening ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 22, at 3:00 p.m. at the Hilton Bogotá Hotel. Colombia’s president Abelardo De La Espriella will be unable to participate due to scheduling commitments.
Mayor Galán’s participation in the opening ceremony is part of an event designed to strengthen dialogue among journalists, public institutions, and key players in the media industry.
Over four days, the program will combine an assessment of press freedom across the hemisphere with discussions on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, new business models, intellectual property, trust in news, journalist safety, and changing audiences.
View the final program of the 82nd General Assembly and register to attend.
Participants include Marc Lacey, editorial director of The New York Times, who will address the challenges facing independent journalism in the United States; and Luis Fernández, chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, who will share his perspective on changes in the media business and new opportunities for Spanish-language journalism.
Artificial intelligence will be a major focus of the program. Ron Suskind, a journalist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and founder of Sourcebase.ai, will examine how this technology can strengthen investigative journalism. Emilio García-Ruiz, editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, will discuss the transformation of a longstanding news organization in response to technological change and evolving audience expectations.
Defending press freedom, the IAPA’s core mission, will be a priority. Delegates from countries across the Americas will review semiannual reports on conditions for journalism, restrictions on access to information, violence against journalists, judicial pressure, and other threats to media independence.
One discussion will focus on impunity for crimes against journalists, a persistent problem that calls for stronger efforts toward investigation, justice, and redress. The Assembly will also address sexual harassment in newsrooms and the need to create safe professional environments, with the participation of Jineth Bedoya Lima, gender editor at El Tiempo and a prominent advocate for women journalists’ rights.
The Assembly will also feature a particularly meaningful moment for Ibero-American journalism: a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of “The Best Job in the World,” the historic speech delivered by Gabriel García Márquez before the IAPA in 1996.
Jaime Abello, president of the Gabo Foundation; Rosental Calmon Alves, founder of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas; María Teresa Ronderos, co-founder of the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP); and Enrique Santos Calderón, former IAPA president, will reflect on the enduring relevance of the Colombian Nobel laureate’s ideas and the profession’s essential principles.
Honoring journalism and press freedom
During the Assembly, the IAPA will present its leading honors: the 2026 Grand Prize for Press Freedom to The New York Times; the 2026 Chapultepec Grand Prize to the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court of Justice; the Great Friend of the Press Award to the Gabo Foundation; and the Executive of the Year Award to Pilar Gil of PRISA Media. The 2026 IAPA Excellence in Journalism Awards will also be presented, introducing for the first time a category for journalism with a gender-equality perspective, sponsored by the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission of Women.
The IAPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 media outlets across the Western Hemisphere and is headquartered in Miami, Florida, United States.
