The Inter American Press Association has awarded the Newseum its 2018 Chapultepec Grand Prize, the organization's top award, for its outstanding leadership and educational work to increase public awareness and understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.
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 publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Fla.
IAPA President Gustavo Mohme said that the award honors the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., for being "unique in the world, a beacon that illuminates, educates and creates awareness of the importance of free will, individual and social liberties, and tolerance for human development and social coexistence."
"We're honored to be included among the esteemed institutions to receive the Chapultepec Grand Prize," said Scott Williams, president and chief operating officer of the Newseum. "Especially since the award is for increasing public understanding of our First Amendment rights, and that's what we get to do every single day."
The Chapultepec Grand Prize has been granted each year since 1998 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 of 1994. The Declaration consists of 10 principles for a democratic society, and has been subscribed to by 60 heads of state and/or government, in addition to judges, legislators, political leaders and thousands of university students.
Previous award recipients include Gregorio Badeni, constitutionalist lawyer, Argentina; Alberto Ibargüen, president of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, United States; 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 Prize for Literature, Peru; José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, United States; Asdrúbal Aguiar, lawyer, academic and former judge of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, Venezuela; the Supreme Court of Argentina; World Bank; Inter-American Human Rights Court; Santiago Cantón, former executive director of the IACHR; Anthony Lewis, author and former columnist of The New York Times; Claudio Grossman, former president of the IACHR; Jorge Santistevan, former Ombudsman, Peru; Dana Bullen, former executive director of World Committee for Press Freedom; Arthur O. Sulzberger, president emeritus of The New York Times, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO.
The 2018 Chapultepec Grand Prize will be presented in a special ceremony during the IAPA's Midyear Meeting that will take place April 13-15, 2018, in the Colombian city of Medellín.
