South Africa’s Khadija Patel Emerges New IPI Executive Board Chair
The head of programmes for the International Fund for Public Interest Media and former editor-in-chief of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper has been elected the 35th chair of the International Press Institute (IPI)‘s global Executive Board.
Khadija Patel was elected by fellow members of IPI’s Executive Board during the organisation’s World Congress and General Assembly, held from September 15 to 17 in Vienna, Austria.
She replaces former editor of Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Markus Spillmann who served two terms after being elected to the position during IPI’s 2018 World Congress in Abuja, Nigeria.
“I’m honoured to be entrusted with this position”, she said.
“And I look forward to steering the IPI through this challenging period of media history. The IPI is a cherished institution and is best placed to bring together the diversity of our industry to forge ahead during a period of significant upheaval,” Patel stated.
Separately, the IPI General Assembly elected ten new Executive Board members.
They are: Raheem Adedoyin, Chairman, Editorial Board, Herald Newspapers, Nigeria; Walid Batrawi, Media and communications expert, Palestine; John Daniszewski, Vice President, Standards, Editor-at-Large, The Associated Press, USA; Márton Gergely, Editor-in-Chief, HVG, Hungary and Emre Kızılkaya, Project Editor of journo.com.tr, Turkey.
The other Board membeds are: Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Journalist and media manager, founder of The Bell, Russia; Etaf Roudan, Radio Al Balad Manager, Community Media Network – CMN, Jordan; Hiroki Sugita, Columnist and Associate Executive Director, Kyodo News, Japan; Jussi Tuulensuu, Senior Editor-in-Chief, Aamulehti, Finland and Sami Zeidan, Principal Presenter, Al Jazeera Media Network, Qatar.
The IPI General Assembly re-elected as Executive Board members Zaffar Abbas, Editor, Dawn newspaper, Pakistan; Mahfuz Anam, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Star, Bangladesh; Monika Eigensperger, Director of Radio, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), Austria; David Jordan, Director, Editorial Policy, BBC, UK; Riyad Mathew, Editor, Malayala Manorama and The Week, India; as well as Khadija Patel.
Five long-time IPI Executive Board members stepped down due to term limits. They are: Sami El Haj, Head, Human Rights and Public Liberties Desk, Al Jazeera Media Network, Qatar; Daoud Kuttab, Director General, Community Media Network; Founder, AmmanNet, Jordan; Kaius Niemi, Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland; Martha Steffens, Professor, SABEW Chair in Business and Financial Reporting, University of Missouri School of Journalism, USA and John Yearwood, Global News Editor and Editor, China Watcher, POLITICO, USA.
Kaius Niemi was nominated to serve as a special adviser to the Executive Board.
IPI Executive Director, Barbara Trionfi praised the election of Patel.
“We are thrilled to welcome Khadija Patel as IPI’s new Board chair, and greatly look forward to working with her to address the challenges facing independent journalism across the globe.
“It is no surprise that Khadija earned the trust of her fellow Board members to take over the chair position and her deep experience as a journalist and editor makes her perfectly suited to this role,” she stated.
“For me and all the colleagues at IPI, it has been a great privilege to work closely with Markus Spillmann over the past three years of his chairmanship.” Trionfi said
She added that he had provided valuable guidance to IPI in a difficult period as the global pandemic forced IPI to revise their working condition in order to serve the global network.
Lateefah Ibrahim
