(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an 8 December 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA pleased with meeting with acting OAS Secretary General Washington (December 8, 2004) – The president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Alejandro Miró Quesada, described the meeting held today with the acting Secretary General of the Organization of Americas States (OAS) […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an 8 December 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA pleased with meeting with acting OAS Secretary General
Washington (December 8, 2004) – The president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Alejandro Miró Quesada, described the meeting held today with the acting Secretary General of the Organization of Americas States (OAS) as productive with respect to demonstrating the hemispheric organization’s support for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, as well as expressing the IAPA’s concern over the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television that was passed in Venezuela and limits freedom of the press in that country.
“We are pleased that the acting Secretary General has listened to our requests and has committed himself to offering greater support to press freedom by strengthening the position of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and the role of the Inter-American Commission, which he said would be given greater autonomy and independence,” explained Miró Quesada, from El Comercio newspaper in Lima, Peru, following the meeting.
The IAPA’s requests were made in the face of a possible reform of the inter-American system as proposed by former OAS Secretary General Miguel Angel Rodríguez. If implemented, Rodríguez’s proposal would have limited the role of the Commission and eliminated the Office of the Special Rapporteur.
The IAPA president was joined in the meeting by Gonzalo Marroquín, Prensa Libre, Guatemala City, Guatemala, chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information; Sergio Muñoz, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, chairman of the Chapultepec Committee; Bill Casey, The Wall Street Journal, New York, New York, member of the Executive Committee; Julio Muñoz, IAPA Executive Director; and Ricardo Trotti, IAPA Press Freedom Director.
The IAPA delegation also expressed its concern over the situation in Venezuela, where the government is creating a “legal framework” through the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television and reforms to the Criminal Code, among other laws. This represents a regime of both prior and direct censorship of the media and news.
“Venezuela is moving in the opposite direction from the rest of Latin America in terms of press freedom, where there is generally a trend towards the decriminalization of libel, the elimination of insult laws, and the creation of access to public information laws,” said Sergio Muñoz.
Meanwhile, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Eduardo Bertoni, who was present at the meeting, said that “the IACHR will insist that Venezuela respect the resolutions and recommendations for precautionary measures that have been made with respect to freedom of the press and of expression.”
Marroquín thanked the IACHR for its support of the IAPA’s fight to combat impunity in the cases of murdered journalists. “The accords between the IAPA and different Latin American governments, such as Guatemala and Mexico, are proof of the effectiveness of the work that is being carried out through the inter-American system in support of press freedom,” he concluded.
