Members of the International Press Institute (IPI), the world’s oldest global press freedom organisation, have re-elected Prof. Dr. Carl-Eugen Eberle as chairman of the group’s 27-member Executive Board and have elected nine new board members.
The move came at IPI’s Annual World Congress and General Assembly from 24-27 September in Taipei, Taiwan, where the group also added press club directors, ombudsmen and press freedom advocates to the list of those who may join as associate members.
IPI members elected Eberle, former director of legal affairs at German broadcaster ZDF, to a second one-year term as board chairman. They also re-elected him and Michael Ehrenreich, co-editor of Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, to second four-year terms on the board.
New board members – who will also serve four-year terms – include Daniel Hadad, CEO of Grupo Infobae in Buenos Aires; Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of the City Press Newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa; Tom Hetland, editor-in-chief of Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad; Edit Inotai, foreign editor of the Nepszabadsag newspaper in Budapest, Hungary; and Markus Spillmann, editor-in-chief of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Zürich, Switzerland.
They also include Kabiru Yusuf, chairman of Media Trust Ltd. in Abuja, Nigeria; George Brock, professor and head of journalism at City University London in the United Kingdom; Dawn Thomas, CEO of One Caribbean Media Ltd. in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago; and Mikael Pentikäinen, publisher & senior editor-in-chief of Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “I am very excited about the new members to the IPI’s Executive Board. They represent the best in their field and bring a wide breadth of experience in the media. These new members also continue IPI’s reputation of a very diverse board in all aspects. IPI’s Vienna secretariat looks forward very much to working with each and every one of them.”
Eberle added: “For IPI, as an institution with a worldwide scope, it is important that members of the Executive Board have been elected not only with due regard to their media skills but also to geographical distribution. That increases IPI’s ability to fight for press freedom wherever necessary around the world.”
IPI is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists dedicated to the protection of press freedom, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism.
The group was formed in October 1950 by 34 leading editors from 15 countries on the belief that an independent and professional media would contribute to the development of a more just, free society governed by the rule of law. Today IPI has members in more than 120 countries and holds consultative status with the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
