DAWN THOMAS, chief executive officer of One Caribbean Media, was recently elected to the board of the International Press Institute (IPI).
The election comes as members of the IPI, the world’s oldest global Press freedom organization, have re-elected Professor Dr Carl-Eugen Eberle chairman of the 27-member executive board.
Thomas joins eight other new board members who were elected at IPI’s annual world congress and general assembly last month in Taiwan.
The group also added Press club directors, ombudsmen, and Press freedom advocates to the list of 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.
Additional 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 Britain; Mikael Pentikäinen, publisher and senior editor-in-chief of Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Thomas was pleased at her election.
“I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to serve as a director on the IPI board, which has earned prestigious recognition for its achievements in defending and strengthening Press freedom.
“The One Caribbean Media Group has a proud history of championing Press freedom and the public’s right to know, and it is my plan to bring to bear this background of experience and commitment on my tenure as a director of IPI.”
In reaction, 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.”
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. (PR)
