Among keynote speakers taking part will be former Mexican President Vicente Fox and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela
MIAMI, Florida (March 11, 2011)—With the confirmed participation of leading figures from the press, technology and politics the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is preparing to hold a hemispheric conference and its Midyear Meeting, events that will focus on a review of the state of freedom of expression in the Western Hemisphere and business models and strategies essential to ensure the future of the press.
At the Hemisphere Conference on Freedom of Expression participants will have as their main theme the rights and responsibilities of the news media, the extent and limits on free speech in the inter-American justice system, the violence unleashed against the press and political repression. The conference is being organized jointly by the IAPA, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Institute of the Americas and will be held April 4-5 in La Jolla, a city near San Diego, California.
The Midyear Meeting, which along with the General Assembly is one of the IAPA’s two major annual membership meetings, will be held April 6-9 in San Diego, in conjunction with the ASNE’s annual convention. The IAPA and ASNE seminars and panel discussions will be open to all delegates and guests of both organizations.
Following are some of the major points of the two events:
· United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon on Monday, April 4 on the opening day of the Hemisphere Conference on Freedom of Expression.
· Mexican former president Vicente Fox will speak at the luncheon on Wednesday, April 6 during the Midyear Meeting.
· Sheryl Sandberg, executive director of the Facebook social network, will give a presentation at the luncheon on Thursday, April 7.
· Tom Curley, president and CEO of the Associated Press news agency, will speak on the issues of safety of journalists, the battle for access to information and the vital new business models for news organizations in his presentation planned for Thursday, April 7.
· An invitation has been extended to José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), to be the keynote speaker at the official opening ceremony of the IAPA meeting.
The seminars and panel discussions that the IAPA Press Institute has organized for the occasion will feature a critical look at models and paradigms that no longer work in the news industry and that urgently need to be changed, and at changes in the mentality and business model that are needed to transform the newspaper into a media enterprise of the 21st century.
For their part, the seminars and workshops planned by ASNE will center on the role of the newsroom in the establishment of more open relationships with readers and clients, the participation of editors in initiatives for collaboration with the sales, business and distribution departments in order to increase revenue, and the best practices for delivering content and interacting with users on the mobile platform.
Other panel discussions will feature working conditions for the press on the United States-Mexico border and other border issues and bi-national problems, as well as the state of freedom of expression in the Americas.
The Midyear Meeting will be held at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. In addition to the presentations, panel discussions and seminars the program will include social and cultural activities to satisfy the most demanding tastes. The Hemisphere Conference will be at the Institute of the Americas in La Jolla.
For more information on the IAPA Midyear Meeting and the Hemisphere Conference on Freedom of Expression go to http://www.sipiapa.org
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
