84th AIPS Congress in Rome re-elects Gianni Merlo as president by acclamation for four-year term

Gianni Merlo has been re-elected as president of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) for a fifth term. The Italian was re-elected by acclamation on the final day of the 84th AIPS Congress in Rome on October 5, 2022.

 

Esat Yilmaer from Turkey and Jura Ozmec from Croatia were also re-elected unopposed for the positions of first vice-president and treasurer respectively.

 

The final day of the 84th AIPS Congress started at 9:30 am with an emotional three minutes of silence for all the colleagues that passed away in the two and half years since the last Congress.

 

VICE-PRESIDENTS The secret ballot was used to select the four vice-presidents. And for the first time in the history of the association, two women were elected as vice-presidents-Evelyn Watta from Kenya, who retained her place di lei, and Zsuzsa Csisztu from Hungary, who became vice-president for the first time after serving as a member in the outgoing Executive Committee. Ioannis Daras from Greece and Mohammed Hiji from Qatar were also re-elected as vice-presidents.

 

They were all elected on absolute majority. Csisztu received 96 votes, Daras - 94, Watta - 93 and Hiji - 89. The fifth candidate Mohamed Ould El Hassan (Mauritania) got 36 votes.

 

MEMBERS  There were originally 14 candidates for 13 member positions in the Executive Committee, but El Hassan from Mauritania later withdrew, and in line with the statutes the remaining 13 members were elected by acclamation. They are: Malik Amjad Aziz (Pakistan),  Adel Al Zahrani (Saudi Arabia),  Gao Chao (China),  Vicente Dattoli (Brazil),  Emanuel Fantaneanu (Romania),  Josef Langer (Austria),  Morad Moutaouakkil (Morocco),  Ernesto Ortiz (Uruguay),  Juan Antonio Prieto (Spain),  Ahmadi Seyed Abdolhamid (Iran),  Hiroshi Takeuchi (Japan),  Marc Ventolluiac (France),  Jose Zidar (Slovenia)

  

GIANNI MERLO'S REMARKS "This is a time for renewal after a long period of Covid, of problems, and we will face more, but being together again is very important. In these years, even with Covid, we did something special, "started AIPS president Gianni Merlo, before showing a video with the major events of AIPS since 2017, including the launch of the AIPS Sport Media Awards (four editions since 2018), AIPS Young Reporters Programs (Austria, Qatar, The Netherlands, London, Amsterdam, PyeongChnag, Birmingham, Brussels, Uruguay, Lausanne, Abu Dhabi, Italy and San Marino, Rabat, Lima, Doha, Lausanne, Oregon), the launch of AIPS e- College (two editions) and five AIPS e-Conferences and Seminars on discrimination, gender inequality, mental health, Tokyo Olympics and Champions League. Also,

 

"Personally, during the first part of the lockdown, I'm very happy for what we organized and what we did to face the other virus that we are experiencing, that is fake news and different world crises. We need to stay united and build bridges. We are completely independent from the rest of the world, and I hope this is the beginning of a new era, to study something new about the next generation of journalists. Our profession is changing, but the principles are not, being honest, working properly. The only thing that changes are the tools to achieve our goals. We have to continue this process of innovation. For this reason, I hope we begin a new era. "

 

Gianni Merlo (Italy)

First vice-president

Esat Yilmaer (Turkey)

 

Zsuzsa Csisztu (Hungary)

Ioannis Daras (Greece)

Mohammed Hiji Ali (Qatar) 

Evelyn Watta (Kenya)

 

Malik Amjad Aziz (Pakistan)

Adel Al Zahrani (Saudi Arabia)

Gao Chao (China)

Vicente Dattoli (Brazil) 

Emanuel Fantaneanu (Romania)

Josef Langer (Austria)

Morad Moutaouakkil (Morocco)

Ernesto Ortiz (Uruguay)

Juan Antonio Prieto (Spain)

Ahmadi Seyed Abdolhamid (Iran)

Hiroshi Takeuchi (Japan)

Marc Ventolluiac (France)

Jose Zidar (Slovenia)

Carlos Julio Castellanos elected as president of AIPS America by acclamation

AIPS Asia: Hee Don Jung elected as President of AIPS Asia

 

CHARLES CAMENZULI RE-ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF AIPS EUROPE

 

 

 In his first comments, Charles Camenzuli thanked all those that supported his candidature to continue as President while also emphasising that he is   the President of all European countries.

 

 Turkish Murat Agca, the former treasurer, replaced Serbian Television's Predrag Milinkovics as Secretary General of the continental association. Agca   ran unopposed. Meanwhile the new treasurer - also as the only candidate - is Cypriot Miltiadus Erodotos.

 

 Twelve candidates applied for the 9 Executive Committee membership positions. The Italian Gianfranco Coppola, the Austrian Michael Schuen and the   Hungarian György Szöllősi were re-elected. Two female candidates became members of the new presidency Nargiz Mahmudzada from Azerbaijan and   Aspasia Velonaki from Greece.

 

 The other EC members are Slovenian Gasper Bolhar, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Glivinsky, the Georgian Zurab Talakvadze and the Bulgarian Najden   Todorov.

 

 The Croatian, Dutch and Romanian candidates did not receive enough votes.

 

 

AIPS Media