Titled “Media in a Challenging World: A 360 Perspective,” the three-day 2012 International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress will examine the many challenges, concerns and opportunities facing the media not only in the Caribbean, but also in the rest of the Americas and around the globe. Interacting with participants from throughout the Americas and other regions of the world, a roster of world-class moderators, speakers and panellists will look at the role of state-owned media in the region and elsewhere, the impact of natural disasters on press freedom, the abuse of government advertising as a way to reward or punish media outlets, and the presence of colonial-era criminal defamation laws on the statute books in many Caribbean countries.

Further panels will include covering corruption and the environment, online media ethics, new business models for the news industry, and how local media can compete with the “big players” - CNN, The New York Times, the BBC, Al Jazeera - in covering breaking news on their own turf. And of course, all of these critical issues will be discussed through the lens of press freedom.

For more information and to register, please visit the IPI Congress website.