The annual general meeting of the press council on Tuesday elected Jean-Lou Siweck as its new president. The outfit, which represents and regulates publishers, editors-in-chief and journalists, changes its leadership every two years. Retiring president Ines Kurschat, a journalist at the Lëtzebuerger Land, was praised for her tireless commitment in representing the council as it seeks changes to the media subsidy law.

Under Siweck the press council says it will continue to lobby for more access to information for journalists. It will also strive to make the press council a more professional organisation by appointing a speaker and managing director and will also seek to extend its programme of training courses for journalists.

The council also thanked Tageblatt journalist Roger Infalt, who is stepping down after serving on the committee for 28 years, which included four years as its president. Kurschat takes over the role of general secretary of the press council from Infalt.

Siweck was appointed managing director of the Editpress group, which publishes the Tageblatt, L’Essentiel and Le Quotidien as well as weekly magazine Revue, in March 2018. He is a former editor-in-chief at the Luxemburger Wort. His former boss there, Paul Peckels, retains his position as vice-president of the press council. New appointments see Tageblatt journalist Melody Hansen as the other vice-president and Emmanuel Fleig, director of L’Essentiel, take on the role of treasurer. Luc Caregari from Woxx, Dave Gloesener from RTL radio and Christophe Langenbrink from the Wort are also on the executive committee.

Meanwhile, Paul Peckels has also announced that a new group, the Association luxembourgeoise des médias d’information, will replace the former Association luxembourgeoise des éditeurs de journaux, with a view to representing all media publishers in the grand duchy.