Lord Black was elected during ENPA’s General Assembly which took place in Oslo at the weekend.
A prominent figure in the international publishing sector, Lord Black has spent 20 years working for press freedom at national and global level, says ENPA. He has been director of the Press Complaints Commission in the UK (1996-2003) and chairman of the Press Standards Board of Finance (2009-14), which led the process of setting up a new self-regulatory mechanism in the UK. Lord Black has been Chair of the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust since 2009 and is also a director of the Advertising Standards Board of Finance, the funding body for the UK’s self-regulatory Advertising Standards Authority. In addition, Lord Black is active in various media charities and public bodies.
ENPA President Lord Black said: “I am honoured to have been elected President of ENPA. I look forward very much to working closely with colleagues from across Europe, and with the ENPA team in Brussels, on the vital and complex issues we face in order to ensure that we retain a free and fearless media. Data protection, copyright, taxation, the so-called "right to be forgotten" and many other issues are high up the agenda, and we have a big job to do in representing European newspaper publishers and putting our case to the new Commission and Parliament. In this task, we are incredibly lucky to build on the work of Ivar Rusdal who has served ENPA for four years with great distinction, wisdom and commitment.”
The new ENPA President succeeds the Norwegian publisher, Ivar Rusdal, Chair of Nordsjø Media AS, who has just completed the maximum four-year term in office.
Outgoing ENPA President, Ivar Rusdal, said: “Democracy needs free media. In turbulent market conditions, it is essential that the EU respects and promotes the freedom of the media, not only in words, but through actions. Interventionist legislation may easily cut away the edges of basic freedoms and undermine the business that the media need to remain independent. It is the purpose of ENPA to explain this to legislators and administrators in Brussels. I wish our new President, Guy Black, and his team, every success in their work that is so vital both for media and society in general.”
The ENPA General Assembly also adopted a Resolution underlining concerns that the draft EU General Regulation on Data Protection could have a serious detrimental impact on press freedom, investigative journalism and protection of sources, as well as the storing and archiving of press articles. This Resolution called for a directly applicable and legally binding exemption from data protection rules in Article 80 of the new Regulation, in order to ensure that journalists and publishers are able to fulfil their mission in democratic society.
About ENPA
ENPA says: “ENPA is an international non-profit organisation representing publishers of newspapers and news media on print and digital platforms. ENPA represents over 5,200 national, regional and local newspaper titles, published in many EU Member States, plus Norway, Switzerland and Serbia.”
