The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFPC-USA) Rings the Nasdaq Opening Bell
NEW YORK — The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA (AFPC-USA) was honored by Nasdaq and invited to ring the bell at Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square during Nasdaq’s opening bell ceremony.
In honor of the occasion, Nancy Prager Kamel, Chairwoman of the AFPC-USA, Thanos Dimadis, Executive Director and AFPC-USA board members Sissel McCarthy, Bob Rowley, Marilyn Haft, Alan Herrera, Thomas Barat, Momoe Ban, Jeannette Hektoen and foreign correspondents ring the Opening Bell.
Robert H. McCooey, Jr.
Nasdaq’s Vice Chairman, Robert H. McCooey, Jr., delivered the opening remarks. “The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFPC-USA) is the leading and most prominent organization in America dedicated to serving foreign journalists working for global media in the USA, with educational programs to advance their skills and knowledge, access to a network of experts, scholarships for master’s studies, prizes of professional excellence, with educational resources in its media platform ForeignPress.org and daily Press Freedom Reports at PressFreedom.org. Media freedom and independence is critical to democracy, and Nasdaq is proud to support and provide a platform for AFPC-USA so that you can continue to amplify your important message and bring even greater awareness to the important role that the foreign press play within the USA and around the world,” he said. “We commend AFPC-USA’s efforts in promoting the foreign press and its freedom, ensuring that media around the world and its critical role within society can deliver on its role to inform, educate, and help shape the important debates that are going on in our society today.”
AFPC-USA’s Chairwoman Nancy Prager-Kamel and Executive Director Thanos Dimadis were then invited on stage to address Nasdaq’s Opening Bell Ceremony in Times Square.
Nancy Prager Kamel
“Nasdaq truly represents worldwide business news and information, and we at the AFPC-USA personify the international voice of truth, giving agency to all the foreign journalists working in the United States of America and around the world,” Prager-Kamel said. “We witnessed journalists wielding power from grassroots, shining light, toppling dictators, breaking down barriers, and disseminating trustworthy information in the present challenging environment.” AFPC-USA “truly represents the brave, unsung, underpaid, and vulnerable soldiers of the fourth estate,” she added. “We applaud all who belong to the worldwide community of foreign journalists. Please be assured that we support your work, we defend your rights, and we honor your role as the world’s conscience.”
In his remarks, Dimadis said: “We accepted this invitation from Nasdaq today to express our solidarity to those foreign journalists who on behalf of our democracies are leading the fight against propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, online harassment, death threats, abuse of power, [and] corruption in multiple countries around the world such as Turkey, Belarus, Iran, Russia, and Myanmar.”
Thanos Dimadis
“We are here to honor our colleagues who are giving daily reporting from Ukraine, reporting the war crimes in Ukraine,” he continued. Dimadis stated that one of them is the FOX News State Department Correspondent Benjamin Hall, who survived a mortar attack in the country earlier this year. Benjamin Hall was one of the keynote speakers during AFPC-USA’s 2022 Foreign Press Awards ceremony. Dimadis noted that “we are also here to applaud all foreign correspondents honored this year with the AFPC professional excellence awards. We also congratulate the younger generations of journalists who received the AFCP Scholarship Awards for their Master studies from the AFPC-USA.”
It is the second time in the organization's history that it has been invited to Nasdaq, the first being in August 2019.
The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA) is the leading organization that serves foreign correspondents in America. Nasdaq honored the AFPC-USA as a recognition of the value foreign correspondents bring through their reporting in shaping the image of America around the globe. Furthermore, Nasdaq's invitation acknowledged the impactful work of the AFPC-USA in supporting foreign correspondents through educational programs, scholarships, awards, educational resources, press freedom reports, and the Foreign Press Awards that were recently held at the Roosevelt House in New York, joined by Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, and Chairman and Vice President of Microsoft Brad Smith.
