Slovak Prime Minister To Speak At IPI Congress

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová To Speak At IPI World Congress

Country’s First Female Prime Minister Hopes Event Can Herald Era of Greater Press Freedom in Slovakia

VIENNA 29 AUGUST 2010 – The International Press Institute (IPI) today announced the inclusion of recently-elected Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová in its World Congress programme.

Ms Radičová will be the first Slovak prime minister to attend an IPI World Congress, which, this year, will be held jointly in Vienna, Austria, and for the first time in Bratislava, Slovakia. Besides speaking, Ms Radičová will also take questions from the audience, which will comprise editors, media executives, leading journalists and publishers from around the world.

“I am honoured that this renowned organisation has chosen to host part of its World Congress in Bratislava, and pleased to be the first Slovak Prime Minister to attend,” Ms Radičová said today. “I hope that this event can herald an era of greater press freedom and also greater media responsibility in Slovakia. I look forward to the opportunity to take questions from such an international audience.”

Radičová, Slovakia’s first female prime minister, took the position after her centre-right party formed a coalition with three other parties following elections in June, replacing a centre-left coalition led by Robert Fico. In her election campaign, Ms Radičová, previously a professor in sociology and a social worker, said she aimed to repair Slovakia’s battered public finances and return Slovakia to the high growth rates it enjoyed in the years before the recent financial crisis.

In keeping with her style, which is seen as one of listening and persuasion, rather than confrontation, Ms Radičová has offered to take questions from the floor at the event on the final day of the IPI World Congress, which is to be held at the newly opened Kempinski Hotel River Park, Bratislava. The closing dinner will be held at Bratislava Castle.

Also in Bratislava, former Slovak foreign minister Miroslav Lajčák will give a keynote address during the panel “Reporting on Extremist Politicians – How New and Traditional Media Cover the Politics of the Extreme.” Participants in that session include Sergej Danilov, an investigative journalist with Slovakia’s Rádio Expres, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, editor-in-chief of Austrian daily Der Standard, and Gábor Miklósi, a reporter for Index.hu, Budapest. Jim Clancy, an anchor for CNN International, will moderate the session.

This year’s IPI World Congress marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of IPI, and will be held in Vienna and Bratislava from 11-14 September 2010. Themed “Thinking the Unthinkable: Are We Losing the News? (Media Freedom in the New Media Landscape)”, the Congress will focus attention on the state of the news media, providing new business models and solutions for the media, and examples of how freedom of the press can survive in this new media environment.

To see the biographies of all the speakers, as well as more about the programme topics and the IPI World Congress in general, visit the official Congress website: www.ipiworldcongress.com.

All the latest news about the Congress and updates on the issues to be discussed in September can be found on the IPI Congress Website (www.ipiworldcongress.com), or by following the Congress team on Twitter at IPI_WoCo2010 or visiting our Facebook Page.

IPI’s partners for the Congress include: Google; Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd; OMV; Bank Austria – Member of UniCredit Group; Telekom Austria Group; City of Vienna; The Federation of Austrian Industries (IV); SITA - Slovak News Agency; Slovak Tourist Board (SACR); Slovak Electricity Transmission System, Plc. (SEPS); Slovak Telekom; The Bratislava Culture and Information Centre (BKIS); Kooperativa poisťovňa a. s. Vienna Insurance Group; Slovak Health Spa Piestany; Minerálna voda Mitická; Prva stavebna sporitelna (PSS); Austrian Airlines; The Twin City Liner; Blaguss; The Vienna Chamber of Commerce – WKO; Allianz - Slovenská poisťovňa; DATALAN; The Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO); GUEST Magazine; and Carat Distillery.

Media partners include: APA - Austria Press Agency; ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Corporation; Der Standard; Die Presse; The Vienna Review; and Webnoviny.sk.

ENDS