The Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), known in English as the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), opens its 82nd General Assembly on Thursday, 22 October, at 3 p.m. at the Hilton hotel in Bogotá. The meeting runs through Sunday, 25 October.
The opening ceremony falls to Bogotá's mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán. The organisation had earlier announced that Colombian president Abelardo De la Espriella would open the assembly, but he was ultimately unable to attend because of scheduling commitments.
More than 70 journalists, media executives and specialists from the Americas and Spain are taking part.
Two tracks: press freedom and the machine
The four-day programme pairs the political stocktaking with the industry's own problem. On one side, delegates will review the semiannual reports on the conditions for practising journalism across the continent: access to information, violence against journalists, judicial pressure and threats to media independence. One session deals specifically with impunity in crimes against journalists.
On the other, the assembly will discuss artificial intelligence, digital transformation, new business models, intellectual property, trust in the news, journalist safety and shifting audiences.
Announced speakers include Marc Lacey of The New York Times, on independent journalism in the United States; Luis Fernández of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, on changes in the media business and Spanish-language journalism; Ron Suskind, Pulitzer winner and founder of Sourcebase.ai, on the use of artificial intelligence in investigative reporting; Emilio García-Ruiz of the San Francisco Chronicle, on the technological overhaul of a historic newspaper; and Jineth Bedoya Lima of El Tiempo, on sexual harassment in newsrooms.
Thirty years since the speech
The tribute to Gabriel García Márquez is not tied to the centenary of his birth, which comes next year, but to another date: the 30th anniversary of the speech the Colombian writer delivered to the IAPA itself in 1996. The panel brings together Jaime Abello, Rosental Calmon Alves, María Teresa Ronderos and Enrique Santos Calderón.
The awards
The assembly will present the Gran Premio a la Libertad de Prensa 2026 (Grand Prize for Press Freedom) to The New York Times and the Gran Premio Chapultepec to the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica's Supreme Court of Justice. The Fundación Gabo receives the Gran Amigo de la Prensa award, and Pilar Gil, of PRISA Media, the Executive of the Year prize.
The 2026 Awards for Journalistic Excellence also introduce a new category for journalism with a gender-equality perspective, sponsored by the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States.
With information from the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa and EFE.
