(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 14 January 2005 IAPA press release: IAPA pleased with regulations for implementation of access to information law in Ecuador Miami (January 14, 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed its pleasure with the recent approval by the Executive Branch in Ecuador of regulations for the implementation […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 14 January 2005 IAPA press release:
IAPA pleased with regulations for implementation of access to information law in Ecuador
Miami (January 14, 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed its pleasure with the recent approval by the Executive Branch in Ecuador of regulations for the implementation of the Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information, “and hopes that it becomes a real and effective mechanism for facilitating the public’s right to information.”
This week, Ecuatorian President Lúcio Gutíerrez passed regulations for the implementation of this law, which was approved on May 18, 2004. The law was proposed by the Ecuatorian Association of Newspaper Editors and other local press organizations.
Gonzalo Marroquín, Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said that IAPA was “pleased that Ecuador has taken this step forward, and that it is one of the countries in the hemisphere that recognizes that by passing laws on access to information, it is guaranteeing and broadening the public’s right to be informed, and thus, contributing to solidifying freedom of expression and a democratic society.”
Marroquín, editor of Prensa Libre newspaper in Guatemala, stated that the IAPA will monitor the application of the law, “in the hope that it will become a real and effective mechanism to ensure the public’s right to information, and that it will not become simply a gesture of good faith.?
The IAPA General Assembly, meeting last October in Antigua, Guatemala, issued a resolution asking the Ecuatorian president to establish regulations for the implementation of this law. It also issued a number of other recommendations on similar laws in Mexico, Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic, asking that they be implemented in a quick and timely fashion.
In early March, an IAPA delegation will travel to Argentina to examine issues relating to press freedom, among which is a legislative bill on access to information that is being discussed by Congress.
