(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 16 November 2000 IAPA press release: IAPA to Send Mission to Santiago del Estero, Argentina, to Probe Attacks on Press Freedom MIAMI, Florida (Nov. 16) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today it will send a mission to the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero on […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 16 November 2000 IAPA press release:
IAPA to Send Mission to Santiago del Estero, Argentina, to Probe Attacks on Press Freedom
MIAMI, Florida (Nov. 16) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today it will send a mission to the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero on November 19-21, to raise complaints of curtailment of press freedom with officials there.
The delegation will be headed by IAPA President Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay news weekly Búsqueda. It will also be made up of the chairman of the hemisphere organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, of Ahora, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; the Committee’s Second Vice President, Roberto Romero, El Tribuno, Salta, Argentina; the Committee’s regional vice chairman for Argentina, Luis Etchevehere, of El Diario, Paraná; Board of Directors member Bartolomé Mitre, of La Nacion, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Press Freedom Coordinator Ricardo Trotti.
The mission is traveling to Argentina under terms of a resolution adopted by IAPA’s General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, last month that called for the Association to express to Santiago del Estero officials and members of the judiciary its “grave concern” at reports of a series of attacks in recent months on the daily newspaper El Liberal. The incidents included the wiretapping of the newspaper’s telephones, the launching of a projectile at its building and the shutting off of access by its reporters to official news sources.
The IAPA delegation is due to meet with the provincial governor, Carlos Juárez, Supreme Court justices, legislators and other leaders of the local community. It also plans to travel to the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, to raise the matter with Interior Minister Federico Storani and Deputy Security Minister Carlos Martin.
The Inter American Press Association, with more than 1,300 newspaper and magazine members from throughout the Western Hemisphere, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of freedom of expression and of the press in the Americas.
