(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 26 November 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA Concerned Over Restrictive Law Against the Press in Venezuela Miami (November 26, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is “extremely concerned” over the approval on second reading by the Venezuelan Congress of the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 26 November 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA Concerned Over Restrictive Law Against the Press in Venezuela
Miami (November 26, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is “extremely concerned” over the approval on second reading by the Venezuelan Congress of the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, known as the “Content Law,” which represents a danger for press freedom by creating a system of control over news in the broadcast media.
Although the government and legislators from the ruling party that promoted this law deny trying to sever press freedom, the IAPA has warned on repeated occasions that it is an instrument that allows the administration of President Hugo Chavez to meddle in the content of the media and its political editorials.
IAPA president, Alejandro Miró Quesada, publisher of El Comercio, Lima, Peru, expressed his concern because the law continues to gain support in Congress and warned about the dangers it poses, among them, “that is establishes prior governmental and discretional censorship without legal mediation,” which leaves the media without a defense and makes not only freedom of the press vulnerable, but also every citizen’s right to information.
Miró Quesada will soon lead an IAPA mission to Venezuela, during which for two days they will discuss press freedom and the principles IAPA defends that are enshrined in the Declaration of Chapultepec.
The IAPA, along with the independent Venezuelan press, has expressed its concerns repeatedly to the officials of that country, but there has been no favorable response or reconsideration of the bill.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press, Gonzalo Marroquín, editor of Prensa Libre, Guatemala, believes that this law “tries to control information and limits the rights of Venezuelans,” and recalled that President Chavez’s government continues to “constantly harass independent journalists.”
Marroquín emphasized that the two countries with the most restrictions on the press in the hemisphere “are Cuba and Venezuela, but there are other countries where they also try to pass legislation that restricts freedom of the press and information. This is dangerous for democracies.”
The “Content Law” is now in the hands of the Committee on Media, Science and Technology of Congress, which has 15 days to make adjustments or corrections before returning it for final approval.