(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris, 3 May 2000 For immediate release Exiled Editor To Address World’s Press Francisco Santos Calderon, the Editor-in-Chief of Colombia’s leading daily who was forced to flee the country to stay alive, will address the 53rd World Newspaper Congress and 7th World Editors Forum when the […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris, 3 May 2000
For immediate release
Exiled Editor To Address World’s Press
Francisco Santos Calderon, the Editor-in-Chief of Colombia’s leading daily who was forced to flee the country to stay alive, will address the 53rd World Newspaper Congress and 7th World Editors Forum when the annual meetings of the world’s press are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month.
Mr. Santos, who has been working for El Tiempo via e-mail from Miami since March, will make a special address at the opening session of the meetings organised by the World Association of Newspapers.
Mr. Santos, 38, went into exile when he learned that an assassination team had been hired to eliminate him. It is thought that the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is behind the threats to the editor’s life.
More than 1,200 newspaper publishers and other senior executives are expected to attend the Brazil meetings, from 11 to 14 June. While the focus of the meetings is on newspaper business issues, press freedom is also a central component of the conferences.
Mr. Santos is the founder of País Libre (A Free Country), an organisation that aids victims of kidnappings. He is a victim of Colombia’s endemic kidnappings himself — held for eight months and freed in May 1991. The story of his kidnapping, ordered by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, is recounted in the best-selling “News of a Kidnapping” by Nobel Literature Prize laureate Gabriel García Márquez.
Mr. Santos also created the movement íNo Mas! (No More!), which drew 12 million white-clad Colombians to the streets on 24 October 1999 to demand an end to violence in the country.
For a full schedule of events, updates and registration information for the Congress and Forum, which will be opened by the Brazilian President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, consult the conference web site at: http://www.wan-press.org/congress.forum (in Portuguese at www.anj.org.br/congress.forum) or by contacting: cbanmeyer@wan.asso.fr.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 63 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.
The World Editors Forum is the branch of WAN that represents senior newsroom personnel.
