Republic of China (Taiwan)
President Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China (Taiwan) is scheduled to address the opening ceremony of this year’s World News Media Congress taking place in Taipei City, Taiwan, from June 28 to 30, 2023.
Organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), in cooperation with United Daily News of Taiwan, the 74th annual congress, which combines the World Media Leaders Summit, World Editors Forum, and the Women in News Summit, will bring together over 800 editors, publishers, chief executives of media organizations and journalists from around the world.
WAN-IFRA President Fernando de Yarza said, “We are honoured that President Tsai will participate in the opening of the 74th annual Congress in Taipei, where news media executives, editors and journalists from over 50 countries will meet to get a grip on where the global industry is headed and how news publishers are responding to fresh challenges. We will meet in Taiwan at a critical moment in its history, with rising tensions across the region. Visible global support for independent journalism, freedom of expression matters as much as acknowledgement of its role in the democratic processes of an open society such as Taiwan’s”
The congress will take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Centre in the Skyline Convention Centre in Taipei City in one of the world’s most digitally wired nations.
Originally planned for 2021, the congress was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chief Executive Officer of WAN-IFRA, Mr. Vincent Peyregne, said: “The World News Media Congress is a moment of reflection, learning, and a call to action to surmount threats and seize the momentum as we look forward, collectively, to a healthy future for news media. The presence of President Tsai Ing-wen is an eminent mark of recognition of the central role of a free and independent press in the country’s democratic processes, and is in line with the tradition of the countries that have welcomed us every year for over seventy years.”
During the event, WAN-IFRA will award the Golden Pen of Freedom Award, its top honour, in recognition of outstanding action, in writing or deed, in the cause of press freedom.
The finalists of the news media industry’s global digital media competition, the Digital Media Awards Worldwide, will also be in attendance at the event during which the 2023 winners will also be announced.
President Tsai is the first female head of state of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name). She is also the first female head of state in Asia who was not born into a political family. Tsai, who has now been in office for seven years, was first elected as President in 2016. She was re-elected in 2020 as the 15th-term President with the highest vote total in Taiwan’s history.
