Chief executive officer of Ireland-based Independent News & Media PLC, Gavin O'Reilly, was today elected as the first president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
WAN-IFRA has been created by the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry.
O'Reilly, who was president of WAN until the merger in July this year, was elected President of the new organisation at its first Annual General Meeting, during the ongoing 62nd World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum here.
Horst Pirker, chairman of the Board of Austria-based Styria Media, was elected first vice president and will take over the presidency from O'Reilly, after his term ends in December 2010.
Pirker had been president of IFRA.
As chief executive officer of Independent News & Media, O'Reilly oversees a leading international newspaper group with more than 200 titles in Ireland, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.
The World Editors Forum elected Fred Arp, chief financial officer of the Telegraaf Media Group in the Netherlands and Tore Stangebye, CEO of Norway-based Berner Gruppen, as Treasurers besides choosing four new Board members. Meanwhile, the Annual General Meeting also decided to hold the 63rd World Newspaper Congress, 17th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2010 in Beirut in Lebanon from June 7 to 10 next year.
It will be the first time the annual Congress will be held in the Arab world.
"The time is right for the world's press to meet in the Arab world, which has so much influence on world affairs, where the media is developing at a rapid rate, but which continues to struggle with repression of the basic human right to freedom of expression," said WAN-IFRA co-CEO Timothy Balding.
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