(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: Message from Jack Fuller President of the Inter American Press Association On World Press Freedom Day* World Press Freedom Day on May 3 is a time to reflect on the many threats and challenges to freedom of expression around the world, but it is also an […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
Message from Jack Fuller
President of the Inter American Press Association
On World Press Freedom Day*
World Press Freedom Day on May 3 is a time to reflect on the many threats and challenges to freedom of expression around the world, but it is also an occasion to celebrate advances in the cause of liberty. In the Western Hemisphere one of the most important of these is the Declaration of Chapultepec.
During the decade since the Declaration of Chapultepec was written, we in the Inter American Press Association see a greater level of maturity in the majority of countries in the Americas on issues pertaining to freedom of the press and of expression. This maturity is not only nourished by society’s leaders, but also by a general climate of greater public awareness of the benefits of freedom, in all its forms, and its importance in strengthening democracy.
Years ago, nobody could have imagined that today, for example, the need for laws on access to public information would be part of the Inter-American political agenda. Citizens know that it is now not enough to elect leaders. They also want to participate and thereby seek greater control in public life.
Only a short time ago, countries like Mexico, Panama and Peru adopted laws on access, and in others, such as Ecuador and Colombia, there are mechanisms to make information more available. None of these measures is perfect, but in every one we can see that there is a greater understanding that freedom of expression and of the press is not a concession by governments, but a natural right of every human being.
The Declaration of Chapultepec has inspired other trends and changes. For example, it directly inspired the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression that today is used in decisions and opinions in the Inter-American judicial system.
For the IAPA, the Declaration of Chapultepec has opened doors for us for dialogue that years ago we began to develop with heads of State, leaders, scholars and citizens and that recently resulted in a very productive exchange of ideas with judges from the Supreme Courts of the Americas. On May 9 in Washington, for example, we have organized a hemispheric summit on freedom of the press with representatives from legislatures from throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Unfortunately, the struggle for freedom of the press is a dynamic process and despite all the advances, today we have to continue to endure attacks against freedom. Journalists in our countries are still being murdered. Many others are sent to prison, unfairly, such as in Cuba. There are laws, court rulings and executive orders that try to strangle the press through economic measures. Licenses are still used to discriminate who can and cannot be a journalist, or government advertising is used to award or punish.
The list of attacks is long and painful. But so is the list of reasons for optimism, and at the top of it is the Declaration of Chapultepec, which 10 years after it was drafted continues to grow in influence.
*World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3, began in commemoration of the Declaration of Windhoek, a document that contains principles on freedom of the press, drafted in 1991 during a meeting of African journalists organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
