(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: World Press Freedom Day Message Alejandro Miró Quesada, El Comercio, Lima, Peru President of the Inter American Press Association To a greater or lesser degree free speech and freedom of the press are being violated in all the countries of the Americas, contrary to the precepts […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
World Press Freedom Day Message
Alejandro Miró Quesada, El Comercio, Lima, Peru
President of the Inter American Press Association
To a greater or lesser degree free speech and freedom of the press are being violated in all the countries of the Americas, contrary to the precepts of the Declaration of Chapultepec, observance of whose principles is essential for democracy to exist.
Since May 3 last year 16 journalists have been killed in the Americas – in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and recently in Mexico. In some cases the reporters and photographers were killed while doing their job as journalists, but in many others – like the incidents that occurred in Mexico in April this year – the violence is linked to groups operating outside the law, such as drug traffickers, who seek to keep their unlawful activities out of the public eye.
Add to this kidnapping and arbitrary imprisonment, as in the case of the 25 independent journalists still in jail in Cuba, and it becomes clear that a very high price is being paid to maintain press freedom.
Apart from resorting to violence there are other actions that hinder the free practice of journalism and, above all, the people’s right to know. Some examples of this are the existence of insult laws in Chile; a reform of the Penal Code in Venezuela that shields public officials from criticism by the press; use of tax regulations to reward or punish journalists and the media in Nicaragua; discrimination in the allocation of official advertising in Argentina; imprisonment of reporters in the United States for refusing to reveal the identity of their news sources; electoral laws that prohibit the media, as in Honduras and Canada, from publishing the results of pre-election opinion polls, and the refusal of the authorities in a number of English-speaking Caribbean nations to grant work permits to foreign journalists.
It is only fair to recognize that there have also been numerous developments that give rise to optimism. Several countries, among them Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Paraguay, have joined with Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic in passing laws giving the public free access to information in the hands of the government. In Panama, gag laws have been repealed. In Cuba, Raúl Rivero and other journalists have been released from prison on grounds of ill health. In Mexico, a reform of the Penal Code included a provision acknowledging that journalists may keep their sources confidential. This was just some of the good news.
In order to counteract threats to press freedom and give support to positive initiatives, our organization continues engaging in international missions, emergency forums and conferences. These range from reviewing case files in the murder of journalists in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to holding emergency forums in Venezuela and the United States to denounce such outrages as the passage of a Content Law and contempt of court orders in cases involving non-disclosure of the identify of news sources, respectively. They have also included conferences with legislators in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and a dialogue with judges in Guatemala and Mexico. Among the international missions has been one to Argentina to look into pressure and discrimination being applied by the national and provincial governments on the media. Training courses for journalists have been held in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and Venezuela, to name just a few.
We in the IAPA are aware that we have to go on working to secure the public’s right to know. We are fully committed to that mission. And, especially on this day, in addition to expressing our solidarity with all those families and colleagues of journalists who have lost their life in carrying our their profession, we believe that it is only fair to acknowledge – as part of the world tribute to freedom of the press – the great contribution that the press makes to democracy.
*World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated annually on May 3, commemorates the Declaration of Windhoek, a document containing principles for the defense of press freedom, drawn up in 1991 during a meeting of African journalists sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
