Jorge Canahuati
Grupo Opsa, Honduras
Sunday, April 10, 2016
2016 Chapultepec Grand Prize
It is an honor for the IAPA that we present the 2016 Chapultepec Grand Prize to our colleague and friend Alberto Ibargüen, who stands out for his vision and leadership in the encouragement of good journalism and in favor of freedom of expression.
The 2016 Chapultepec Grand Prize is being awarded to Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, for his work at the head of that organization and his professional career in news media and associations such as ours.
Ibargüen has been at the head of the Knight Foundation since 2005 and from this generous organization he has contributed to the transformation of journalism through the technology and strengthening of the press and its fundamental role in a democratic society, as established in the 10 principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec.
We also recognize Ibargüen for his contribution to IAPA projects in defense of the work of journalists, which has been demonstrated in the achievements obtained in cases of the murder of journalists during his time as chairman of the Impunity Committee from 1998 to 2004.
Ibargüen, of Cuban and Puerto Rican origin and having grown up in the United States, is a law graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Wesleyan University. He was editor of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald in Miami and during his role there the English-language newspaper won three Pulitzer Prizes and the Spanish-language one obtained the Ortega y Gasset Award. He has also worked as an executive of The Hartford Courant in Connecticut and Newsday in New York.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of PepsiCo and American Airlines. And among other roles he has belonged to the boards of directors of the Inter American Press Association, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the AOL company. He was chairman of the board of public television channel PBS, of the World Wide Web Foundation, which promotes a free and universal Web, and of the Newseum, dedicated to journalism and press freedom.
In 2004 he was awarded Columbia University's Maria Moors Cabot Prize for his work on protection of Latin American journalists. Seven universities have granted him honorary doctorates and in 2015 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded by one of the founding fathers of the United States, John Adams.
I repeat the honor that it represents for the IAPA to be able to thank Ibargüen for his commitment to good journalism, with freedom and human rights.
I now pass the word to our president, Pierre Manigault.
