IAPA announces members of its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information

MIAMI, Florida (December 1, 2014)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today announced the members of its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, which is in charge of monitoring and overseeing the state of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. This committee is chaired by Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda. Joining him as vice chairs are Lourdes de Obaldía, editor of the Panama newspaper La Prensa, and Roberto Rock, director of the Grupo La Silla Rota of Mexico. IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, confirmed Paolillo in October as the head of this committee “which he has been leading in a decisive and very effective manner for the past two years.” The posts of regional vice chairmen, whose duties include, among others, the defense and promotion of press freedom and the presentation of twice-yearly country-by-country reports during the organization’s two membership meetings each year, went to the following: Argentina: Daniel Dessein, La Gaceta, San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán. Bolivia: Pedro Rivero Jordán, El Deber, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Brazil: Ricardo Pedreira, Associação Nacional de Jornais (ANJ), Brasília. Caribbean: Vivian-Anne Gittens, The Nation, Bridgetown, Barbados. Chile: Marco Antonio González, Grupo Copesa, Santiago. Colombia: Roberto Pombo, El Tiempo, Bogotá. Costa Rica: Ricardo Lizano, CB24 Noticias Centroamérica, San José. Cuba: Yoani Sánchez, 14yMedio, Havana. Dominican Republic: Miguel Franjul, Listín Diario, Santo Domingo. Ecuador: Carlos Pérez Barriga, El Universo, Guayaquil. El Salvador: Fabricio Altamirano, El Diario de Hoy, San Salvador. Guatemala: Mario Alejandro Sandoval, Prensa Libre, Guatemala City. Haiti: Max Chauvet, Le Nouvelliste, Port-au-Prince. Honduras: Rodolfo Dumas Castillo, La Tribuna, Tegucigalpa. Mexico: Armando Castilla, Vanguardia, Saltillo, Coahuila. Nicaragua: Jaime Chamorro Cardenal, La Prensa, Managua. Panama: Eduardo Quirós, La Estrella de Panamá, Panama City. Paraguay: Natalia Zuccolillo, ABC Color, Asunción. Peru: Manuel Boluarte Carbajal, Inforegión, Lima. Puerto Rico: Héctor Peña, El Nuevo Día, San Juan. United States: Bruce D. Brown, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Arlington, Virginia. Uruguay: Washington Beltrán, El País, Montevideo. Venezuela: Asdrúbal Aguiar, El Impulso, Barquisimeto, Lara. 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.