(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an 18 May 2005 IAPA press release: IAPA pleased over repeal of gag laws in Panama Miami (May 18, 2005).- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today welcomed the unanimous approval by the Legislative Assembly in Panama of a bill to repeal the gag laws and said that this eliminates […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an 18 May 2005 IAPA press release:
IAPA pleased over repeal of gag laws in Panama
Miami (May 18, 2005).- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today welcomed the unanimous approval by the Legislative Assembly in Panama of a bill to repeal the gag laws and said that this eliminates steps taken in previous decades to restrict press freedom.
Legislative bill #73 prohibits the application of sanctions for insult, introduces measures relating to the right to clarification and reply and introduces other regulations. One of the articles establishes the elimination of the concept of insult by preventing “government officials in power from imposing economic sanctions and prison sentences against those who they believe have disrespected them.”
In a letter sent today to Panamanian President Martín Torrijos, the chairman of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, stated “the approval of this initiative is an important step for freedom of the press in Panama and for democracy.”
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, hailed “the fulfillment of a commitment announced during the inauguration of the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting held in Panama last March when [Torrijos] expressed his willingness to repeal ‘laws that restrict freedom of expression’ and announced the approval of a bill to present to the legislature to repeal gag laws.”
He added, “We trust that these measures will allow for the development of press freedom, especially with this renewed commitment to upholding the public’s right to information.”
The law, which was approved on May 16 on third reading and unanimously by the Panamanian legislators, repealed Law #11 of 1978, which stipulated a number of measures relating to the media and the publication of printed materials, and Law #67 of 1978, which regulated the exercise of the journalism profession in Panama, and other matters.
