(IAPA/IFEX) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has welcomed a resolution adopted by the Organization of American States at its general assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on 2 June 1998, in which the nations of the Western Hemisphere agreed “to strongly repudiate attacks on the practice of freedom of the press and crimes against journalists.” […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has welcomed a
resolution adopted by the Organization of American States at its general
assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on 2 June 1998, in which the nations of the
Western Hemisphere agreed “to strongly repudiate attacks on the practice of
freedom of the press and crimes against journalists.”
Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly news magazine
“Busqueda”, and chairman of the IAPAâs Committee on Freedom of the Press and
Information, said that “the new focus of the OAS joins other efforts that
our organization has spearheaded, among them the declaration by UNESCO
condemning crimes against journalists, creation of the position of special
rapporteur on freedom of expression within the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights and the general awareness of the issue that resulted from
IAPA-sponsored July 1997 Hemisphere Conference on Unpunished Crimes Against
Journalists.
David Lawrence Jr., publisher of “The Miami Herald”, Miami, Florida, and
vice-chairman of the IAPAâs Impunity Sub-Committee, expressed “the
associationâs pleasure at the recognition by the countries of the Americas
of this scourge against press freedom.” He added that the OAS resolution
will lead to the “creation of a new mechanism to combat crimes being
committed with impunity” and said he was confident that this would be “an
effective tool and not mere lip-service.”
Meanwhile, IAPA President Oliver Clarke, chairman of The Gleaner Company,
Kingston, Jamaica, referred to point 5 of the resolution, in which the OAS
member countries resolved “to instruct the Permanent Council to study the
appropriateness of drafting an Inter-American Declaration on Freedom of
Expression.” He declared, “We trust the OAS Permanent Council will look into
the possibility of the Declaration of Chapultepec, signed and endorsed by a
score of heads of state and government in the Americas, serving as the
framework for this new document on freedom of expression.”
Clarke recalled that the IAPA is currently organizing the Chapultepec
Conference on Freedom of Expression, scheduled for 16-18 August in San Jose,
Costa Rica, in which the 10 principles enshrined in the hemisphere
Declaration will be examined.
The text of the OAS resolution is appended to the end of this press release.
ASSAULTS UPON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
HAVING SEEN the request of the Secretary General that the item “Crimes
Against
journalists” be included on the agenda for the twenty-eighth regular session
of the General Assembly;
BEARING IN MIND that Article 3.1 of the Charter of the Organization of
American States establishes as one of its principles that “the American
States proclaim the fundamental rights of the individual without distinction
as to race, nationality, creed or sex”;
RECALLING:
That Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
states that “every human being has the right to life, liberty and the
security of his person,”; and
That Article IV of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
provides that “every person has the right to freedom of investigation, of
opinion, and of the expression and dissemination of ideas, by any medium
whatsoever”;
REAFFIRMING that Article 4 of the American Convention on Human Rights
provides
that “every person has the right to have his life respected”;
REITERATING the full validity in every democratic society of freedom of
expression, which should be subject not to prior censorship but, rather, to
subsequent liability arising from the abuse of that freedom, in accordance
with the domestic law legitimately enacted by states to ensure respect for
the rights or reputation of others, or to protect national security, public
order, health or public morals;
BEARING IN MIND that, at the Second Summit of the Americas, held in
Santiago, Chile, in April 1998, the heads of state and government expressed
their support to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in this area,
in particular the recently established position of Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Expression;
CONSIDERING that, at the same Summit of the Americas, the heads of state and
government reaffirmed in Santiago “the importance of guaranteeing freedom of
expression, information and opinion”; and
CONSIDERING that, inter alia, the Hemispheric Conference on Unpunished
Crimes
Against Journalists, held in Guatemala in 1997, reported that in recent
years assaults have been made upon the right to life of media professionals
in the performance of their duties;
RESOLVES:
1. To condemn vehemently assaults upon freedom of the press and crimes
against
journalists.
2. To urge member states to strengthen the measures needed for the
investigation and punishment, in accordance with their domestic law, of
assaults upon freedom of expression and crimes against journalists.
3. To reaffirm that the communications media make an indispensable
contribution to strengthening democratic systems in the Hemisphere.
4. To urge the member states to support the work of the Special Rapporteur
on
Freedom of Expression, whose position was recently established by the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights.
5. To instruct the Permanent Council to study the advisability of preparing
an
Inter-American Declaration on Freedom of Expression.
6. To request the Permanent Council to report in due course to the General
Assembly on the implementation of this resolution.
