LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Fellow Members,
The new AAPA committee held its first meeting November 28 and rapidly got down to work drawing up an exciting and challenging programme for the…
UNESCO Director General Invites AAPA After PalestineVote
By Ronald Koven UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova told a breakfast meeting Nov. 9 with members of the Anglo-American Press Association that she is heartened by the decision of theUSgovernment to continue to be active in the Paris-based Organization, despite a legal requirement to withhold US dues over the recent admission ofPalestineas a full-fledged member state. The breakfast at UNESCO’s…
A Career Making Revelations and Eluding Threats
Pierre Péan, France's best-known investigative journalist, told AAPA members that he had resorted a few years ago to writing about the French Revolution's bloody campaigns against monarchist rebels in Brittany as a way to escape threats to himself and his family over his exposures of contemporary political and financial scandals. At a well-attended meeting on Oct. 11 over evening drinks at the…
Meeting with Jean-François Copé
In our second meeting with him in just over a year, on October 27, Jean-François Copé, close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy and UMP secretary general, provided insights and blunt commentary on the…
AAPA Mourns Peter Stephens
Peter Stephens, a long-time Daily Mirror Paris bureau chief and one of the towering figures of the post-World War II foreign press corps, died at his home in the 16th arrondissement on Sept.30. A former…
AAPA meets with Arab League Envoy
The burning issues affecting Arab countries and the ongoing diplomatic ballet over the Palestinian question in the United Nations were among the key issues discussed between Arab League Ambassador to France Nassif Hitti and AAPA members over breakfast at the Procope Oct. 4. Hitti, a veteran diplomat and a multicultural academic, shed light on the complicated and often labyrinthine mechanisms…
Israel's Ambassador, Yossi Gal
Israel's ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, provided some twenty members on Sept. 8 with some frank, defensive, explanatory series of insights on some of the most sensitive issues facing his country and the international community. The breakfast meeting, hosted by the Israeli Embassy, covered French-Israeli relations, the controversial Palestinian move for recognition at the UN later this month;…
John D. Panitza
We are sad to announce that John D. Panitza, former Managing Editor of
Reader’s Digest and a long-time member of AAPA, died in Paris on July 28 at the
age of 80 after a long struggle with cancer.
“Dimi,” as he was known to…
AAPA meets Palestine's Envoy
The stalled Middle East peace process and its implications for the Palestinian people were the main topics discussed when Palestinian ambassador to France, Hael Al-Fahoum, met with the AAPA on June 23 at the Palestinian mission. Over a lengthy breakfast, Al-Fahoum, a veteran diplomat and PLO insider since the late 1970s, explained his concerns for the region and discussed potential strategies for…
Sun Shines For AAPA's Annual Gala
Our annual spring gala held at the British Embassy residence this year on June 1 had all the necessary ingredients for a successful event: a wonderful setting, a brace of top-level diplomats, fantastic…