MIAMI, Florida (November 3, 2016)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today awarded Argentine constitutionalist lawyer Gregorio Badeni its 2017 Chapultepec Grand Prize for his outstanding contribution to the fight for freedom of expression and of the press.
The IAPA recognized Badeni as "one of the most experienced lawyers who has been an influence in legal and judicial issues on press freedom in Argentina and in other countries of the region whose knowledge has enabled members of the public, journalists and news media to enjoy greater guarantees to seek and disseminate information."
Badeni holds a doctorate in Law and a degree in Political Science; he is a member of the Schools of Law, Moral and Political Science, and Journalism, being former president of the first two. He is a corresponding member of the prestigious scientific academies of Chile, Spain and Peru. A renowned speaker on constitutional matters he has been a professor at De la Plata National University, Argentine Catholic University and Argentine Business University and of Buenos Aires University where since 2009 he is Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law. In June this year he was named by the Buenos Aires Legislature as "Outstanding Personality of Juridical Sciences."
IAPA President Matt Sanders, a senior director and general manager of Deseret Digital Media, Salt Lake City, Utah, said, "We are honoring Badeni for his extensive professional career as a lawyer and as defender of press freedom, whose knowledge and advocacy have favorably influenced the repeal of the offenses of contempt and the decriminalization of defamation in the press in institutional matters, constitutional recognition of the confidentiality of news sources, access to public information and legal acceptance of the concept of real malice."
The chairman of the IAPA Chapultepec Committee, José Roberto Dutriz, president of the El Salvador's Grupo La Prensa Gráfica group, declared, "We will always be grateful for the generosity of Badeni, who has brought his wisdom and experiences to the IAPA on innumerable occasions, embellishing and making more interesting our Chapultepec forums in which the IAPA brought together magistrates, judges, legislators and representatives of executive branches to meetings that we held in Guatemala, Washington, Miami, Santo Domingo and San José, Costa Rica."
Badeni, 73, is also the author of numerous books, among them "Libertad de Prensa" (Press Freedom), his "Constitutional Law" treatise in three volumes and articles on legal matters concerning freedom of expression. In 2006 he received from Argentina's Konex Foundation the Konex Platinum Award for Humanities. Since 1990 he is a member of the adjudication panel of the awards made annually by the Association of Argentine News Entities (ADEPA), an organization that he joined 30 years ago and today is its permanent legal counsel.
Other personalities and institutions that have been awarded the Chapultepec Grand Prize for their contribution to freedom of expression are: Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Catalina Botero, former Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Fernando Henrique Cardoso, author and former President of Brazil; Enrique Krauze, author, historian and journalist, Mexico; Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Literature Prize winner, columnist, Peru; José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch; Asdrúbal Aguiar, lawyer, academic and former judge of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, Venezuela; the Argentine Supreme Court through its chief justice, Ricardo Lorenzetti, Argentina; World Bank; Inter-American Human Rights Court; Santiago Cantón, former IACHR Executive Secretary; Anthony Lewis, author and former columnist of The New York Times; Claudio Grossman, former IACHR President; Jorge Santistevan, former Ombudsman, Peru; Dana Bullen, former Executive Director of the World Press Freedom Committee; Arthur O. Sulzberger, President Emeritus de The New York Times Company, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former Director General of UNESCO.
The IAPA will present the award to Badeni in a special ceremony to be held in Antigua, Guatemala, where the organization will be holding its Midyear Meeting March 31 to April 3, 2017.
The Chapultepec Grand Prize is the IAPA's leading distinction which since 1998 is awarded annually to individuals or organizations for their defense and promotion of freedom of expression and of the press within the framework of the Declaration of Chapultepec, a document of 10 principles that should govern in a democratic society.
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.
