(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Geneva, Switzerland, 9 December 2003 Coalition on Press Freedom Calls for Waiver of US Visa Restrictions A global coalition of free press organisations has asked the United States to ease travel restrictions on foreign journalists. The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organisations, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Geneva, Switzerland, 9 December 2003
Coalition on Press Freedom Calls for Waiver of US Visa Restrictions
A global coalition of free press organisations has asked the United States to ease travel restrictions on foreign journalists.
The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organisations, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, cited the detention and expulsion of foreign journalists from the United States in recent months and said that journalists should be included in the US Visa Waiver Program for visitors from friendly countries.
“Keeping journalists out of the United States damages the US image as an open society,” the Committee said in a resolution, which asked the US Congress to include journalists in the many professions that do not need a visa for their stays in the United States.
In recent months, journalists from France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, Austria and elsewhere have been detained at US airports, handcuffed and expelled from the country for not having visas. Customs officials had routinely waived the visa requirement in the past, but that changed with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organisations which signed the resolutions are the Inter American Press Association, the International Association of Broadcasting, the International Federation of the Periodical Press, the International Press Institute, the North American Broadcasters Association, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Press Freedom Committee.
Read the full resolution at:
http://www.wan-press.org/article3269.html
In other resolutions passed at the meeting, which was hosted by the World Association of Newspapers, the Committee:
– Condemned the deteriorating condition of press freedom in Russia (read the full resolution: http://www.wan-press.org/article3273.html ).
– Condemned the continuing deterioration of press freedom in Zimbabwe, where the country’s only independent newspaper, The Daily News, was closed and its journalists and directors persecuted (read the full resolution:
http://www.wan-press.org/article3275.html ).
– Condemned the unprecedented increase in repression in Cuba, where 28 independent journalists remain in prison after their arrest and sentencing, after summary trials, to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years for simply disseminating news, ideas and opinions outside the government’s control
( http://www.wan-press.org/article3276.html ).
– Urged the Mexican government to formalise an agreement with the Inter American Press Association to put an end to the impunity in the murders of Hector Felix Miranda and Victor Manuel Oropeza. The Committee called for an investigation by the national attorney general’s office and insisted that special prosecutors be appointed, that a timetable of activities be set and that compensation be paid to family members ( http://www.wan-press.org/article3277.html ).
– Urged Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his government to respect freedom of the press and freedom of expression and to observe the results of a recall process now underway. It also asked the judicial and legislative branches to discard bills contrary to freedom of the press and freedom of expression ( http://www.wan-press.org/article3279.html ).
– Condemned the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice for ordering the Ethiopian Journalists’ Association to cease its activities for failing to submit audit reports over the past three years. “The government’s claim is a pretext to penalise the organisation for criticising a controversial press law currently being reviewed by the government,” the resolution said (read the full resolution at: http://www.wan-press.org/article3274.html ).
– Called on organisers of the World Summit on the Information Society to reconsider plans to hold a second summit in Tunisia, a country that does not respect free speech and press freedom (read the full resolution:
http://www.wan-press.org/article3270.html ).
– Applauded the reaffirmation of press freedom and freedom of expression on the internet in the draft Declaration for the WSIS (read the full resolution:
http://www.wan-press.org/article3271.html ).
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.
