Nigeria’s Wada Maida, Kenyan Elected Into IPI Board
L-R: Dr. Qasim Akinret; Wada Maida and Stephen Gitagama
Publisher of People’s Daily Newspaper & Chairman, Board Of Management, News Agency Of Nigeria (NAN), Wada Maida and Group CEO, Nation Media Group, Kenya, Stephen Gitagama have been elected into the International Press Institute board, at the 2019 IPI World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.
The duo will represent Africa in the IPI Board.
The General Assembly Of IPI also ratified the election of Maria Ressa of rappler.com into the new Board and nine Journalists were reelected from Slovakia, Norway, South Korea, United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany Japan, Spain and Switzerland into the board.
Chairman Board Of Management, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Mallam Ismail Isa, and Managing Director/CEO and Board member, Daily Trust Newspaper, Kabiru Yusuf had worked tirelessly to rally support for the Nigerian candidate ahead of the opening ceremony and General Assembly Of IPI at the UN headquarters in Geneva.
Specifically, Maida replaced Mallam Yusuf who was hitherto in the IPI board.
The new Management Board Of IPI is expected to work assiduously towards the goal of Press Freedom and add values to the ideals of the global media organization in their countries and the collective across the world.
The general assembly approved the entry of Tanzania and Czech Republic into IPI community and equally accepted resolutions on press freedom in Egypt as well as the abuse on Espionage Act over Wikileaks case. It condemned in strong terms all charges under the Espionage Act against Julian Assange.
The General Assembly agreed to issue statements on the Freedom of the Press and Journalists harassment as well as intimidation of Journalists in Cameroon and Sudan.
It observed a minute silence in honour of two IPI heroes who died recently in South Africa and South Korea. They are Raymond Louw from South Africa and S-Whan Hyon who died in South Korea.
The Nigerian participants to the 2019 IPI world Congress were led by Mallam Kabiru Yusuf, Managing Director/CEO and Board member, Daily Trust Newspaper and President, IPI Nigeria.
Others are Wada Maida, Former Managing Director, News Agency Of Nigeria, NAN, Sir Folu Olamiti, Former Editor Nigerian Tribune Newspapers and Media Consultant, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Muhammed Idris, Publisher, Blue Print Newspapers, Steve Ayorinde, Former Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Qasim Akinreti, Chairman, Nigeria Union Of Journalists, Lagos State Council, Muhammed Mustapha Shehu, Publisher, The Politico Magazine, Eniola Bello, Managing Director, THISDAY newspapers and Osawaru Okunzuwa, Managing Director, Community Media, based in Benin, Edo state.
IPI world congress 2019 was supported by over 20 media organizations including European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Channels Television, Nigeria, and Aljazeera Media Network among others.
Ten presentations were made based on the theme of the Congress “Building Alliances For Independent Media”.
Two awards on World Press Freedom Hero 2019 and Free Media Pioneer Award 2019 were presented to Cyril Almeida, Columnist and Assistant Editor, Dawn Pakistan and Lina Attalah, Co-founder and Editor in chief, Mada Masr, Egypt.
