ROME, Jul 5 (IPS) - Inter Press Service International Association has elected a new Board of Directors and Director General to serve for the next three years. The new slate of executives will head the IPS association of 110 journalists and other communications professionals from around the globe, a majority of whom are from the developing South.
Following an election process which lasted more than a month, held according to the organisation's Articles of Association, and involving in a virtual worldwide meeting of its 110 members, IPS elected a new Board of Directors, President, Director General, Board of Trustees, and Auditing, Appeal and Nominations Committees for the next three-year period, 2005-2008.
The process entailed a series of votes with the active participation of 66 percent of the Association members.
Mário Soares, former president of Portugal (1986-1996), lawyer, historian and politician, was re-elected as Chair of the Board. The first vice-chair is Fifi Benaboud from Algeria, and the second vice-chair is Walther Lichem from Austria.
Uruguayan journalist Mario Lubetkin was re-elected as Director General, Govin Reddy from South Africa as Treasurer and Giovanni Spinelli from Italy as Secretary.
The Association aims to carry forward the goals of the former cooperative of journalists that created IPS to promote free communication and a professional flow of independent and diverse information about development, human rights, civil society and globalisation.
Its stated purpose is to support the production and dissemination of information on national and international realities, with special attention to the developing countries.
The new IPS Board: Fifi Benaboud (Algeria), René Castro (Costa Rica), Joaquín Costanzo (Uruguay), Thalif Deen (Sri Lanka), Halle Hanssen (Norway), Henny Helmich (Netherlands), Ramesh Jaura (India), Kerry Kennedy (United States), Walther Lichem (Austria), Mario Lubetkin (Uruguay), Govin Reddy (South Africa), Farai Samhungu (Zimbabwe), Mário Soares (Portugal), Johanna Son (Philippines), Giovanni Spinelli (Italy), Aminata Traore (Mali) and Aye Aye Win (Burma).
One-third of the IPS Board was renewed. Six members are journalists, three are professionals from local or international non-governmental organisations, six come from the world of development aid, and an academic and a former head of state round out the membership.
Six board members are from industrialised countries (five from Europe and one from the United States), and the remaining 11 come from developing countries (three from Africa, four from Asia, three from Latin America and one from the Arab world).
More than one-third of the new members are women. One of them -- Benaboud -- was delegated by the Chair of the IPS Board to head the Executive Committee on his behalf. It is one of the three most important positions in the IPS Association.
Roberto Savio, the Italian-Argentine journalist who founded IPS in 1964, was ratified as Chair of the IPS International Board of Trustees. Both Savio, founder and promoter of numerous telecommunications projects, and IPS Director General Mario Lubetkin represent IPS at the International Committee of the World Social Forum, the largest global meeting of organised civil society, held annually since 2001.
The rest of the unanimously elected members of the Board of Trustees are Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN Secretary General; Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland; Inder Kumar Gujral, former prime minister of India; Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica; Gabriel Valdes Subercaseaux, president of the External Relations and Human Rights Commission of the Chilean Senate; and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former UNESCO Director General.
