(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA Opens Membership to Online Newspapers MIAMI, Florida (Nov. 30, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that it has decided to make online newspapers eligible for membership in the hemispheric free-press organization – so long as they primarily carry news, information and […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA Opens Membership to Online Newspapers
MIAMI, Florida (Nov. 30, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that it has decided to make online newspapers eligible for membership in the hemispheric free-press organization – so long as they primarily carry news, information and opinion like their printed counterparts, 1,300 of which belong to the IAPA.
The way was paved for this new step by a resolution to this effect adopted during the General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, last October.
IAPA President Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda, said the decision was reached following a series of meetings that looked into the extent and scope of newspapers on the Internet and recognition of the fact that “they, too, need to be defended against any attempt to curtail freedom of expression.”
The IAPA resolution declared that “to close any printing press or online newspaper, or make it unusable, is harmful to culture and democracy.”
Arbilla explained that the resolution was based on the spirit of Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 2 of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which state that everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression, and to seek, receive and impart information and opinion by any means and without any restriction whatsoever.
The IAPA has consequently amended its charter and bylaws to say that “bona fide newspapers and magazines published six or more times a year, whether printed or online, shall be eligible for Active membership” in the Association. However, it stressed that it will not admit online newspapers which do not primarily carry news, information and opinion items or which “originate in a governmental concession.”
