61ª Asamblea General The Westin Hotel Indianápolis, Indiana 7 al 11 de octubre de 2005

ALEJO MIRÓ QUESADA
Speech to present president’s prize at the 61st General Assembly
Indianapolis, Indiana
October 7 - 11, 2005

One of the nicest traditions of the job of president of the IAPA is having the authority to give a prize.

And there are no rules for the president’s prize. It is completely ad libitum; so ad libitum that it is not necessary to justify it or to present it to a jury. There is only one consideration: the powerful and very Peruvian “Me da la gana, pues,” “Because I feel like it.”

There were several candidates because many deserve it. But I had to choose one, and I want to tell you how I decided.

I was in Nairobi representing IAPA at the annual meeting of the IPI, and I was asked to make a presentation in which I would talk about our work.

Well, there was one topic that aroused so much interest that in a few months a delegation of African journalists landed in Miami to ask us for more information.

The reason for this was not unwarranted. When our prize winner was president of the committee we are discussing he took on the work with such idealism that he soon made it an outstanding committee. In fact, its current president was invited to London by the WAN to speak on the topic on World Press Freedom Day.

Fate has obliged our prize winner to remain away, although still near, while the IAPA surely would have had a place for him at the top. However, all of us who know him know that IAPA runs in his blood and beats in his heart.

I now call –and of course you already know who it is—Alberto Ibargüen whom we will always remember as the creator and founder of the Impunity Committee and now president of the Knight-Ridder Foundation.

Alberto, it is a huge honor for me to give you the 2005 President’s Prize.