(SPP-FIP/IFEX) – The following is a 29 August 1998 statement by FIP member the Paraguay Union of Journalists (Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay, SPP), Asuncion: **Updates IFEX alert of 27 August 1998** We inform international human rights and journalists’ organizations that on 26 August [1998], the new government in Paraguay, in particular President Raúl Cubas […]
(SPP-FIP/IFEX) – The following is a 29 August 1998 statement by FIP member
the Paraguay Union of Journalists (Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay,
SPP), Asuncion:
**Updates IFEX alert of 27 August 1998**
We inform international human rights and journalists’ organizations that on
26 August [1998], the new government in Paraguay, in particular President
Raúl Cubas Grau, promised media workers that restrictions on the full
exercise of the profession being applied in public institutions were being
lifted. Cubas Grau made the pledge to a group of media representatives,
among them SPP leaders.
After this session, staff from the building which is the seat of government
(the Palacio de Gobierno) began to dismantle the barriers restricting the
area in which journalists could carry out their work in and around the
building. The Palacio de Gobierno went back to the arrangement which was in
place under the previous two governments. Cubas Grau also pledged to send a
note to the different government ministries to ask them to facilitate the
work of journalists, particularly since when the new government took over
there were several incidents in which journalists found themselves limited
in their work and often denied access to certain events [see IFEX alert].
This change in the position of the highest authority in government comes
from a series of local actions, like those of SPP, which received good
coverage in the local press. Among them were several statements and a 24
August demonstration in front of the Palacio de Gobierno. SPP will remain
watchful of how events around journalists’ coverage of public institutions
unfold, and will keep an eye on whether President Cubas keeps his word. At
first glance, the new government appears to lack an adequate communications
policy which would serve the country’s interests.
