The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) President, Gianni Merlo has been re-elected as president for a fifth term.
The reelection of the Italian came on October 5, 2022, the final day of the 84th AIPS Congress in Rome, through acclamation.
Esat Yilmaer from Turkey and Jura Ozmec from Croatia was 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.
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.
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 (Prieto), Juan Antonio Prieto (Spain), Ahmadi Seyed Abdolhamid (Iran), Hiroshi Takeuchi (Japan), Marc Ventolluiac (France), Jose Zidar (Slovenia)
The president in his speech after the election said “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, Pyeongchang, 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 of 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. “
The newly elected AIPS Executive Committee (2022-2026)
President
Gianni Merlo (Italy)
First vice-president
Esat Yilmaer (Turkey)
Vice-presidents
Zsuzsa Csisztu (Hungary)
Ioannis Daras (Greece)
Mohammed Hiji Ali (Qatar)
Evelyn Watta (Kenya)
Executive Committee
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)
Source: AIPS Media