(SPP/IFEX) – The following is a 3 May 1999 SPP press release: **For background on the March events see IFEX alert of 29 March 1999** Paraguayan journalists will continue in their struggle for a democratic press On World Press Freedom Day, for the first time, the Paraguay Union of Journalists (SPP) organised a public event […]
(SPP/IFEX) – The following is a 3 May 1999 SPP press release:
**For background on the March events see IFEX alert of 29 March 1999**
Paraguayan journalists will continue in their struggle for a democratic
press
On World Press Freedom Day, for the first time, the Paraguay Union of
Journalists (SPP) organised a public event in front of the National
Parliament. The event paid tribute to press workers who, during the week of
23 to 28 March 1999 (known as the “Paraguayan March”), actively reported and
presented proof of the attacks by the totalitarian forces of the former
government of Raúl Cubas Grau and supporters of former military chief Lino
César Oviedo, against the defenceless population that was defending
democracy
During this public event, which marked the end of the Paraguayan Journalism
Week, SPP Secretary General Ignacio Martínez emphasised press workers’ and
SPP’s commitment to the defense of democracy and to a state of Law during
the rule of the former totalitarian government. He added that, given the
process of the democratic reconstruction currently underway in Paraguay,
journalists should set themselves up as a counterpoint that will
consistently follow and oversee the government’s operations, pointing out
its errors and highlighting its successes.
Martínez also urged the new government, which promised to end impunity in
the country when it took power on 28 March, to shed light on the 1991
assassination of journalist Santiago Leguizamon, so that those behind the
crime and those who committed it may be punished. The National Police had
made serious mistakes in its submission of facts to the legal investigation
of this crime.
In commemoration of SPP’s twentieth anniversary, an official message from
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), circulated by the representative of UNESCO in Paraguay, was read
during the event. At the closing of the event, SPP’s Board of Directors laid
down an offering of flowers in front of a cross, that is located in the
square in front of the National Parliament and that was erected as a tribute
to seven youth who were assassinated during the week of the “Paraguayan
March”.
