WAN-IFRA President Fernando de Yarza said, “We are honoured that President Tsai will participate in the opening of the 74th annual Congress in Taipei, where news media executives, editors and journalists from over 50 countries will meet to get a grip on where the global industry is headed and how news publishers are responding to fresh challenges. We will meet in Taiwan at a critical historical moment, with rising regional tensions. Visible global support for independent journalism and freedom of expression matters as much as acknowledging its role in the democratic processes of an open society such as Taiwan’s.”

The Taipei event, initially planned for 2021, but postponed due to COVID-19, now takes place at a critical moment in the region’s history.

“The World News Media Congress is a moment of reflection, learning, and a call to action to surmount threats and seize the momentum as we look forward, collectively, to a healthy future for news media. The presence of President Tsai Ing-wen is an eminent mark of recognition of the central role of a free and independent press in the country’s democratic processes and is in line with the tradition of the countries that have welcomed us every year for over seventy years.” added Vincent Peyregne, CEO WAN-IFRA. In Spain in 2022, King Felipe VI officiated.

President Tsai is the first female head of state of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name). She is also the first female head of state in Asia who was not born into a political family. Tsai, who has been in office for seven years, was first elected President in 2016. She was re-elected in 2020 as the 15th-term President with the highest vote total in Taiwan’s history.