President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), alongside Carlos Tibúrcio and Fernando Morais, Chair of the IPS Board of Directors (right). Credit: Planalto.

By External Source
BRASILIA, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

During an official audience at the Planalto Palace, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met on Monday 20 November with writer and journalist Fernando Morais, the first Brazilian to assume the role of Chair at IPS Inter Press Service, one of the international news agencies most committed to democratic communication with developing countries and with civil society at a global level.

IPS was established in 1964, in Rome, coinciding with the emergence of the G77 and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

When greeting Morais, President Lula recalled that Brazil, during his first term in office, was the first country in the global south to be part of the IPS core group of supporter countries.

“I am very happy to see my friend and biographer at the head of an international news agency of this relevance. The challenges are certainly enormous, but Fernando and his team will not lack political and professional capacity to overcome them.” At that time, the person representing Brazil on the agency’s international board was journalist Carlos Tiburcio, former coordinator of President Lula’s Speech Team, who participated in the hearing as a board member of IPS Latin America and Special Advisor to Fernando Morais in the Agency’s Presidency.

The new chair of IPS was born in Mariana, state of Minas Gerais, worked in the main press organizations in Brazil, received the Esso award three times, and the Abril award for journalism four times, and in 2001, the Jabuti award for the book Deaf hearts. He was a state representative and secretary of Culture and Education of the State of San Pablo. With books published in 38 countries, Morais is the author, among others, of “The Island”, “One Hundred Kilos of Gold”, “Olga”, “The Last Soldiers of the Cold War”, “Chatô” and “Lula, volume 1.”

Morais sees this as a new era for IPS, which was built to increasingly democratize information at an international level and give a voice to those who have no voice.

– I am committed to maintaining the mission and integrity of the Agency’s values, its multicultural character and its diversity, revitalizing its role in a world in marked transformation, in which the BRICS are expanding, the Global South is emerging and the fight against inequalities are worsening at all levels, he says.

Excerpt:

Elected by the agency’s global board of directors on November 14th, journalist and writer Fernando Morais assumed the mission of elevating IPS – Inter Press Service – to face the current challenges and perspectives in which the BRICS expand, the Global South emerges and the Internet revolutionizes communication around the world