(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 17 January 2003 IAPA press release: Guatemala: IAPA asks for an end to harassment against the press Miami (January 17, 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the harassment campaign being waged by the government against several newspapers in Guatemala. The organisation characterised the campaign as […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 17 January 2003 IAPA press release:
Guatemala: IAPA asks for an end to harassment against the press
Miami (January 17, 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the harassment campaign being waged by the government against several newspapers in Guatemala. The organisation characterised the campaign as a violation of the principle of freedom of expression and called on local authorities to stop the harassment against the press.
The tense relations between the independent press and the government of Guatemala reached a high point on Wednesday, January 15, when the tax collection agency, the Department of Tax Administration (SAT), audited the Diarios Modernos publishing company, which prints the daily newspaper Nuestro Diario. SAT officials demanded that certain documents from the archives be handed over to them so that they could take them out of the building. According to those affected, this action violated Article 24 of the Constitution, which guarantees the protection of archives. A judge subsequently agreed with this statement and ordered the tax agency to refrain from taking any documents from the company.
Rafael Molina, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information,
noted that “for the last two years, the Guatemalan press has been denouncing the existence of a government plan to harass newspapers and undermine their credibility. This situation has deteriorated because of the constant public verbal attacks from the highest authorities, who dismiss the press’ informative role.”
Molina, director of the Dominican Republic magazine Ahora, also questioned the head of the collection agency SAT, who attacked the press on the same day that three local newspapers, Prensa Libre, elPeriodico and Nuestro Diario, claimed that the incident at Diarios Modernos was part
of a government plot and constituted a violation of the Constitution.
Finally, Molina recalled that during the IAPA mission to Guatemala in September 2001, President Alfonso Portillo signed and promised to respect the Declaration of Chapultepec. The declaration contains ten principles on press freedom, and states that “the media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say.”
