IPI Holds Anniversary

The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) will hold its annual World Congress in Vienna, Austria, and Bratislava, Slovakia, from 11-14 September 2010, in honor of its 60th anniversary, the organization announced Mar. 3.

The three-day conference, entitled  "Thinking the Unthinkable: Are We Losing the News? (Media Freedom in the New Media Landscape)," will focus attention on the state of the news media, providing new business models and solutions for the media, and the unique opportunity to meet and interact with major players from both traditional and new media outlets.

"The new information platforms are having an enormous impact not only on mainstream journalism, but also on press freedom in countries where authoritarian regimes seek to curtail freedom of opinion and expression," said IPI Director David Dadge.

Scheduled speakers include Alex Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, editor-in-chief of Der Standard in Austria; Jeff Howe, contributing editor at Wired Magazine and author of the best-selling book, Crowdsourcing; and Jim VandeHei, co-founder and executive editor of the influential Politico website.