MIAMI, Florida (January 17)—The Inter American Press Association reported today that due to the very high number of entries received and the great interest shown in participating it has decided to extend to February 1 the deadline for receipt of entries in the 2012 Excellence in Journalism Awards contest.

To date 650 entries have been received, almost half of them in recent days. The new deadline is midnight on February 1, 2012, and there will be no further extension.

The awards contest each year attracts the best and brightest of journalism in the Western Hemisphere. Publications and news agencies in some 33 nations in the Americas and the Caribbean submit their best works in English, Spanish or Portuguese.

The 12 awards categories are: inter-American relations; human rights; news coverage; features; in- depth reporting; photography; cartoons; info graphics; opinion; the newspaper in education, online news coverage and multimedia coverage. In addition the IAPA awards its Grand Prize for Press Freedom to a person or organization showing significant achievements on behalf of the cause of freedom of the press.

The call for entries and contest rules may be obtained from the IAPA’s Web site, www.sipiapa.org/awards.It is not necessary to be an IAPA member to participate.

Contest entry forms and rules are available for downloading from the IAPA’s Web site, www.sipiapa.org.

Direct access: http://www.sipiapa.org/awards