Journalism that stands up: press freedom in Latin America
Fri 11 April 2025
17:00 - 17:50
Free
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Gabriel García Márquez fought for his whole life against the various threats to democracy in Latin America, but even today journalists like him have to face political and legal persecution, and even imprisonment, just as the Gabo Award Winner to Excellence, Jose Ruben Zamora in Guatemala, where even if a new democratic president is elected, the journalist is likely to go back to prison. Thirty years after founding the Gabo Foundation, Jaime Abello can lead a perfect conversation to create awareness and understanding that killing is not the only way of silencing journalism and breaking democracy, that there are new ways of threatening in Guatemala, in Mexico, and of course in Venezuela, and to create real awareness from the international community. Latin America needs a place of representation in international forums so that we can all support a better future for the region, and for that we need to recognize and support the journalists that go on with their duty no matter what.
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Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo
Il Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo di Perugia è un evento annuale che riunisce professionisti dei media, esperti di comunicazione e appassionati di informazione da tutto il mondo. Si svolge nel centro storico di Perugia e offre conferenze, dibattiti, workshop e opportunità di networking sui temi più rilevanti del giornalismo contemporaneo.
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Jaime Abello Banfi
Jaime Abello Banfi is General Director and co-founder of the Fundación Gabo, an organization created in 1994 in Cartagena by Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1982. Its current mission is to promote better journalism and stimulate creativity, with an emphasis on the workshop method and the founder’s memory. Before joining the Gabo Foundation, Jaime was, from 1990 to 1994, the Director-Manager of Telecaribe, the regional public television channel of the Colombian Caribbean. He graduated from the Law Faculty of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá but has dedicated his professional life to journalism, film, communication, and cultural management.
Laura Ardila
Laura Ardila is a freelance journalist from the Colombian Caribbean, who has been a journalist for 21 years. She has specialized in investigating political mafias and electoral corruption, and her stories are a reference for understanding how power works in her country. She is the author of the book La Costa Nostra (Rey Naranjo, 2023), the unauthorized history of the Char family, Colombia's most powerful political clan, which became a bestseller in 2023. She is a columnist for the newspaper El Espectador and currently lives in Spain, as member of a program for at-risk Latin American journalists. She is a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). She has won five national journalism awards and was a finalist for the Gabo Prize (in a team application) in 2020. She is the only Colombian woman journalist to be recognized twice (in 2017 and 2023) as Journalist of the Year at the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize.
Luz Mely Reyes
Luz Mely Reyes is a Venezuelan multimedia journalist. She is co-founder of the independent digital media organisation Efecto Cocuyo, which she has directed since its foundation in 2015. She also founded Venezuela Migrante, which is devoted to cover the mobility of Venezuelans around the world. She considers herself a digital migrant. She studied journalism at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York. She is currently studying for a magister degree in Social Communication at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela, where she is exploring digital migration of the Venezuelan press and emerging challenges in the midst of an authoritarian system and in the context of technological change. Luz Mely's areas of editorial interest are: electoral campaigns, human rights and international migration. She has won multiple national and international awards. She was awarded the Gabo Prize in 2018, the Franco-German Human Rights Prize in 2019, the CPJ Prize for Freedom of Expression in 2018, the WOLA Prize in 2019 and the Lasa Prize in 2021. She is also ""maestra"" at Fundación Gabo, organization that was founded by the Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez. In 2022 she became member of The Gabo Prize Board. She is also a member of the Reuters Institute's Advisory Board.