Miami (March 19, 2014)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is to make an in-depth review during its Midyear Meeting to be held in Barbados April 4-7 of major press freedom developments in the past six months in each of the countries of the Americas.
Newspaper representatives, reporters and editors will be attending the event to take part in the presentation of country-by-country reports on the state of press freedom, the key activity of the IAPA meeting which on this occasion will be held at the Hilton Barbados Resort in Bridgetown, Barbados.
During the four-day meeting there will be panel discussions focusing on important issues, among them the crisis in Venezuela, restrictions on news coverage in the United States and a debate on media concentration and the role of the government.
The discussions on violence which in these semester six journalists have been murdered; the existence of authoritarian governments and its control of information and the cancellation of independent press; a lack of transparency; restrictions on access to public information and discrimination in the placement of official advertising are some of the difficulties faced by the exercise of press freedom in the Western Hemisphere.
In addition the IAPA has scheduled thematic conferences on the protection of newspapers’ information from search engines, the economic development and regulation of Caribbean media and a special celebration of the 20th anniversary of the IAPA-inspired Declaration of Chapultepec.
There will also be seminars on trends and new strategies in the news industry.
To see the whole meeting program please go to http://www.sipiapa.org/en/barbados-jewel-of-the-caribbean-iapas-next-destination/
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.
