Miami (September 3, 2024) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that it has awarded the 2024 Chapultepec Grand Prize to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This award recognizes the CPJ's "commendable work in favor of press freeodm and freedom of expression as part of its fight and promotion for human rights," principles embodied in the Chapultepec Declaration.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981. It promotes press freedom globally and defends the right of journalists to report safely without fear of retaliation. It is headed by its CEO Jodie Ginsberg, a journalist who previously worked for other international press freedom organizations.
The CPJ, based in New York, has collaborated in securing the release of dozens of journalists jailed for their work in various parts of the world; its task of investigating cases of crimes against journalists has significantly contributed to the fight against impunity in crimes against the press, while its emergency team has provided comprehensive assistance to numerous journalists who are in exile.
Roberto Rock, president of the IAPA and director of the Mexican news portal La Silla Rota, stated that the IAPA's Executive Committee, Advisory Council, and Board of Directors, the IAPA's highest governing bodies, awarded this prize to the CPJ for its "unwavering professionalism and dedication to the defense and promotion of press freedom, especially in raising public awareness and demanding justice for violations against journalists."
The prize will be presented to Ginsberg, CPJ's CEO, at a ceremony during the 80th General Assembly of the IAPA in Córdoba, Argentina, from October 17 to 20, 2024.
Carlos Jornet, president of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editorial director of La Voz del Interior, Córdoba, Argentina, highlighted that the award "enhances the spirit of our 1994 Chapultepec Declaration, which advocates for ten essential principles for press freedom in a democratic society, and distinguishes the CPJ's work in its commitment to these ideals."
Prominent personalities and institutions have also been recipients of this award, including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK Human Rights), USA; Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), Colombia; Martin Baron, former executive editor of The Washington Post, USA; Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR); Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, USA; Newseum, USA; Gregorio Badeni, constitutional lawyer, Argentina; Alberto Ibargüen, fromer President, CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, USA; Catalina Botero, former Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Colombia; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President and writer, Brazil; Enrique Krauze, historian and journalist, Mexico; Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize in Literature 2010, Peru; José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch, USA; Asdrúbal Aguiar, former judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Venezuela; Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina, Argentina; World Bank, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Santiago Canton, former Executive Secretary, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Argentina; Anthony Lewis, author and former columnist, The New York Times, USA; Claudio Grossman, former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, USA; Jorge Santistevan, Ombudsman, Peru; Dana Bullen, Executive Director of the World Press Freedom Committee, USA; Arthur O. Sulzberger, director emeritus of The New York Times, USA, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, general director of UNESCO, France.
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
