Leading editors and media experts from Bangladesh, Spain, Turkey, and the United States have been elected vice-chairs of the International Press Institute (IPI)‘s global Executive Board.

The new vice-chairs, as selected by their fellow members of the Executive Board shortly after the 2021 IPI World Congress, are:

•  Mahfuz Anam, editor of Bangladesh’s The Daily Star newspaper
•  Virginia Pérez Alonso, editor-in-chief of the Spanish news site Público and chair of the Platform for the Defence of Free Expression (PDLI)
•  John Daniszewski, vice president, standards and editor at large for the Associated Press
•  Emre Kızılkaya, the chair of IPI’s Turkey National Committee and the project editor at Journo.com.tr

The vice-chairs join Executive Board chair Khadija Patel, who was newly elected to her position at the IPI World Congress last month. Ten new Board members were also elected during the Congress, from Nigeria, Palestine, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Jordan, the U.S., Japan, Finland, and Qatar.

The IPI Executive Board is elected by the General Assembly with regard to geographic, gender and media, and other forms of diversity. The Board chair and vice-chairs are chosen by the Executive Board members. The Board oversees IPI’s finances and guides the Secretariat in implementing the organisation’s overall strategy in defence of media freedom.