Lima (October 16, 2011)—Nine national press organizations today presented their joint Fight for Freedom of Expression Award here to Argentine journalist Ricardo Trotti, Press Freedom Director of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in recognition of his dedication to the preservation of an independent press in the Americas.
Trotti is the author of the book “The Painful Freedom of the Press: In Search of Lost Ethics” and other works on the Latin American people’s right to freedom of expression. Since 1993 he has worked for the IAPA, where also heads its Anti-Impunity Project and its Press Institute.
In making the award the organizations said that Trotti is regarded as the most diligent expert on press laws in the Americas, which has enabled him to leave a profound and personal mark in the daily fight for personal freedoms in that region.
“For many years he is the one who has fought most to maintain the fresh air essential for an independent press,” commented the editor of the Tucumán, Argentina, newspaper La Gaceta, Daniel Dessain, chairman of the Press Freedom Committee of the Argentine Newspaper Association (ADEPA) and the Regional Vice Chairman for Argentina of IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
“Trotti went on from being the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in a province next to mine to traveling throughout the Americas to become one of the most vigilant custodians of freedom of expression in each of our countries,” Dessein said.
In addition to ADEPA the press organizations making the award were Brazil’s National Press Association (ANJ); Chile’s National Press Association (ANP); the Colombian Association of Newspaper and News Media Editors and Publishers (Andiarios), the Ecuadorean Association of Newspaper Editors and Publishers (AEDEP); the Mexican Association of Newspaper Editors and Publishers (AME); the Venezuelan Press Bloc (BPV); the Peruvian Press Council (CPP) and the Dominican Republic’s Center for Freedom of Expression.
From October 14 to 18 the IAPA is holding its 67th annual General Assembly in Lima, Peru, at which some 500 reporters, editors and publishers are, among other activities, reviewing the state of freedom of the press in each nation in the Western Hemisphere.
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.
