(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA fights against mandatory licensing after being alerted by creation of a “colegio” in Nicaragua Miami (November 2, 2004) – In a resolution issued at its recent General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) urged its members to intercede in rejecting as […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA fights against mandatory licensing after being alerted by creation of a “colegio” in Nicaragua
Miami (November 2, 2004) – In a resolution issued at its recent General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) urged its members to intercede in rejecting as unconstitutional those countries that require mandatory licensing. The organization was alerted to this issue by the imminent creation of a “colegio” [journalists’ association] in Nicaragua.
The IAPA does not oppose the creation of journalists’ associations, but is against mandatory membership in these associations since this violates the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and guarantees established in international human rights treaties.
Below is the complete text of the document:
Mandatory Licensing
WHEREAS
a ruling is still pending in Nicaragua on the appeal against Law 372, which creates an official journalists’ association (colegio in Spanish), and the two journalists’ organizations are calling for this association to be established in November
WHEREAS
laws requiring journalists to belong to an officially sanctioned professional association in order to practice journalism still exist in Venezuela, Ecuador and Honduras, and requirements that a person have a university degree in communications in order to practice journalism still exist in countries such as Brazil and Bolivia
WHEREAS
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Advisory Opinion OC-5/85 of 1985, described mandatory membership in a journalists’ association or degree requirements as restrictions on the exercise of freedom of speech and of the press, which are protected under Article 13 of the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights
WHEREAS
Principle 8 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “The membership of journalists in guilds, their affiliation to professional and trade associations and the affiliation of the media with business groups must be strictly voluntary”
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to urge the Supreme Court of Nicaragua to rule favorably on journalists’ requests for protection from mandatory membership in an official journalists’ association
to adjure IAPA members in those countries where membership in a journalists’ association or possession of a university degree is required to work as a journalist to challenge the constitutionality of these requirements in view of the aforementioned ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
to urge IAPA members to work together to carry out this task and provide information to the Committee on Freedom of the Press, so that these initiatives may be publicized widely and so that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights may be formally notified.
