(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 March 2002 IAPA press release: IAPA assails anti-free press legislation MIAMI, Florida (March 28, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today told the governments of the United States, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and other countries of its opposition to laws and draft legislation to regulate news-gathering and thus curtail […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 March 2002 IAPA press release:
IAPA assails anti-free press legislation
MIAMI, Florida (March 28, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today told the governments of the United States, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and other countries of its opposition to laws and draft legislation to regulate news-gathering and thus curtail freedom of the press.
In the case of Ecuador, the IAPA called on the National Congress not to pass a number of bills. Among them is a bill for a proposed minors protection law that would contain provisions regulating the content of private news media, requiring them to provide space for coverage of child and teenager issues, and another that would oblige the media to provide a right of immediate and free-of-charge reply.
In the United States, the hemispheric free-press organization urged the government not to place any limits on applicability of the federal Freedom of Information Act, but to keep full access to public records, in line with principle 3 of the Declaration of Chapultepec on freedom of expression. The principle states that “the authorities must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and reasonable manner the information generated by the public sector.”
In the cases of Guatemala and Nicaragua, the IAPA called on the authorities to remove a requirement for licensing of journalists. In Guatemala, it appealed to the Constitutional Court to uphold a lower court ruling declaring such licensing unlawful and in Nicaragua asked the Supreme Court to rule in favor of a number of appeals before the court for repeal of the licensing law.
The IAPA has consistently supported an advisory opinion issued in 1985 by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that licensing of journalists – or the requirement that they belong to a professional guild in order to be able to work legally – amounts to a restriction of the exercise of freedom of expression and of the press as guaranteed under Article 13 of the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights.
These submissions reflected resolutions adopted at the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting in La Romana, Dominican Republic, March 15-19, which also included repudiation of newly-enacted electoral laws in Bolivia that curtail press coverage and legal proceedings in Costa Rica having a similar effect.
On a positive note, the IAPA welcomed a federal court ruling in Brazil setting aside a requirement that only university graduates may work as journalists in that country, the repeal of an insult law in Costa Rica and passage of a law providing for access to public records in Panama.
The resolutions, conclusions and reports on press freedom emanating form the IAPA Midyear Meeting are being posted in English, Spanish and Portuguese on the IAPA Web site, www.sipiapa.org
