Meetings with government officials, civil society leaders on the docket
Miami (April 29, 2011)—An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) will be in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 4 and 5 to investigate issues concerning freedom of the press in accordance with a mandate adopted during the organization’s recent membership meeting in San Diego, California.
The IAPA mission will be headed by the organization’s president, Gonzalo Marroquín, of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21. Accompanying him will be Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas; Committee Co-Chairman Claudio Paolillo of the Montevideo, Uruguay, magazine Búsqueda; Chapultepec Committee Chair María Elvira Domínguez of El País, Cali, Colombia; Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz, and Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti.
During its two-day stay in the Argentine capital the delegation plans to meet with officials of the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government, with church leaders and representatives of labor unions, business groups and non-governmental organizations, as well as with reporters and editors from local media. The objective is to understand a range of viewpoints on the overall state of press freedom in the nation.
Scheduled for 5:00 p.m. local time on May 5 is a press conference to announce the mission’s preliminary results. It will take place at the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Association of Argentine News Entities (ADEPA) in the Press Building, 11th Floor, 314 Chababuco Street.
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.
