MIAMI, Florida (March 28, 2015)—The president of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, will formally open in Punta Cana the Inter American Press Association's Midyear Meeting to be held April 8-11 for a review of the state of press freedom in the Americas.
President Medina will be the special speaker in the IAPA half-yearly meeting's official opening ceremony scheduled for the morning of Sunday, April 10. Medina, who is a candidate for re-election in the general elections on May 15, will be invited to sign the IAPA-inspired Declaration of Chapultepec.
The IAPA has also organized a special event on April 11 with the other Dominican Republic presidential candidates, who will be asked to add their signatures to the Declaration of Chapultepec, a 10-piece document setting out the principles of freedom of expression and of the press that should rule in a democratic society.
There will be a special presentation by Dominican Republic Foreign Relations Minister Andrés Navarro García on Saturday, April 9.
The IAPA activities begin on Friday, April 8 at the Westin Puntacana Resort & Club, the venue of the four-day meeting with seminars, conferences, discussion panels and presentation of country-by-country press freedom reports.
Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro is to take part in the April 10 session in a conference titled "The New Challenges For Hemisphere Democracy In a Diverse and Plural Space" in which he will speak on the changes in Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia following the holding of elections, the presidential election campaign in the United States and the unfreezing of relations with Cuba, among other fundamental issues for the region.
That same day there will be presented to Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Chapultepec Grand Prize, IAPA's major distinction which is awarded annually to those who stand out for their defense and promotion of freedom of expression and of the press within the framework of the Declaration of Chapultepec.
Access the meeting's full program here.
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.