December 6, 2000

The FNPI-CEMEX New Journalism Prize is being instituted to promote excellence in journalism and to reward those individuals committed to its professional value in Latin America and in the Caribbean. The prize, which will be awarded as of 2001, consists of two categories: a contest and a life-achievement award with a total of $100,000. The Prize is the result of a strategic alliance for social development of the Iberian-American New Journalism Foundation (Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano-FNPI) -headquartered in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia- and CEMEX, a cement multinational, based in Monterrey, Mexico.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, president of FNPI, journalist and writer, Nobel Prize for Literature, and Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman of the Board and CEO of CEMEX, signed the charter creating the Prize in Mexico City last October 21st. Signing as witnesses of honor were Mercedes Barcha, the writer's wife, his brother Jaime García Márquez; board member Alberto Abello Vives, and the journalists who make up the Prize's Council: Tomás Eloy Martínez and Horacio Verbitsky of Argentina; Rosental Calmon Alves and Geraldinho Vieira of Brazil; Javier Darío Restrepo and Germán Rey of Colombia; Alma Guillermoprieto and Carlos Monsivais of Mexico; and U.S. photo-journalist Susan Meiselas. Also attending the ceremony was FNPI's Director, Jaime Abello Banfi.

The document signed by Mr. García Márquez and Mr. Zambrano states that "the creators of the prize share the same principles and concerns about the quality of the content and social responsibility of the media and journalists. For this reason CEMEX has supported FNPI. Both parties believe that the prize is an appropriate tool for sending a clear message calling for the improvement of the profession to society, journalists and the media."

A life-achievement award, consisting of $30,000, will be given every year to a journalist with at least 20 years of experience, a well-known body of work and an impeccable career.

The competition will alternate every other year awarding different types of work in print and electronic media. In uneven years, beginning in 2001, the $25,000-award will go to the best written story and the best news photograph, plus $ 5,000 for two finalists. In 2002, the awards will be given to the best work in radio, television and the internet.

An international panel of judges formed by five journalists from different countries, appointed by the Prize's Council and chaired personally by Gabriel García Márquez and Lorenzo H. Zambrano, will evaluate the competing papers and choose the finalists and the winner in each category. The works will be evaluated based on: quality of the narrative and of the image, complete treatment of the subject matter, original research, coverage of socially relevant issues, and the ethical values of the work.

For the first competition, the participants must submit their works to FNPI between January 15th and May 15th, 2001. All of the work must have been published in Latin America and the Caribbean between January 1st, 2000 and April 30th, 2001, in Spanish, Portuguese, English or French. The rules, approved by the Prize's Council, will be available to the participants as of December 20, 2000 at the foundation's website: www.fnpi.org/premio

The organizers have the intention of widely publicizing the invitation, as well as the winning stories and the biographical profiles of their authors and of the journalist receiving the life-achievement award. International support will be given by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).