The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) bestowed the Grand Prize for Press Freedom to Marcel Granier, the CEO of private television station RCTV, and his staff of reporters and collaborators.

IAPA conferred the prize upon the oldest television channel in Venezuela for its "tenacious strive for freedom of expression in the Western Hemisphere, as it has advocated courageously and steadfastly its right to keep the license to broadcast on open signal, which was snatched by the government of Venezuela" last May 27.
 
IAPA praised the "huge efforts" RCTV has made to broadcast on cable and satellite television, in a move to defend both the right to work of 3,000 people in the TV network and free enterprise.

"They (RCTV) managed to prevent an independent, professional voice that exercised full freedom of expression for half a century in Venezuela from being silenced for merely political reasons," said Gustavo Mohme of daily newspaper La República de Perú, the co-chairman of IAPA Awards Committee.

The award will be presented during the 63rd IAPA General Assembly in Miami next October 12-16.