Mr Brock succeeds Gloria Brown Anderson of the New York Times.

George Brock

"WEF is the only global organisation devoted to raising and maintaining the quality of journalism in newsrooms," said Mr Brock."In addition to joining in press freedom campaigns with the World Association of Newspapers, I would like to build up WEF’s role as a network of editors who meet to exchange and debate best practice, trends and changes which affect journalists everywhere."

The WEF, the organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers, provides senior news executives with an arena in which to exchange ideas and information about the business of editing newspapers. Its flagship event is its annual conference, held in conjunction with WAN’s World Newspaper Congress, the premier annual event of the global newspaper industry.

The WEF also runs a weblog for editors at www.editorsweblog.org. The weblog is updated daily and will soon become a cooperative weblog among editors world-wide.

Mr Brock’s election was announced at the the WEF Annual General Meeting, held on Wednesday during the World Editors Forum summit in Istanbul, Turkey.

As Managing Editor for The Times, Mr Brock, 52, is responsible for editorial strategy and planning, recruitment, resources and media regulation. He was the launch editor of the compact edition of The Times.

He joined the Times in 1981 and has been a features writer and editor, Opinion Page editor, Foreign Editor (1987-1990), bureau chief in Brussels (1991-1995), and European Editor (1995-1997). He has contributed to newspapers across the world and broadcast frequently on the BBC.

He has been a member of the board of the WEF since 2001 and he sits on the British committee of the International Press Institute. He is a governor of the Anglo-American Ditchley Foundation.

WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 101 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.