(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: MESSAGE FROM IAPA PRESIDENT ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY Advances and setbacks in press freedom in the Americas MIAMI, Florida (May 1, 2001) – The president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Danilo Arbilla, today called laws that seek to regulate the press and those […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
MESSAGE FROM IAPA PRESIDENT ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
Advances and setbacks in press freedom in the Americas
MIAMI, Florida (May 1, 2001) – The president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Danilo Arbilla, today called laws that seek to regulate the press and those that provide for imprisonment of journalists harmful and contrary to democratic principles. He made the assertion in a statement to mark World Press Freedom Day, celebrated annually on May 3.
Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda, said that the countries of the Western Hemisphere would be at the vanguard of free speech if they all adjusted their laws to come into line with the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression recently adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which reflects the contents of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, whose underlying precept is that “no people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press.”
May 3 is the date chosen to commemorate the Declaration of Windhoek, a document on press freedom sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and signed in 1991 in the southern African country of Namibia. In the traditional IAPA message marking the occasion, Arbilla declared:
“Just as we sought to do at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City last month, we will continue to call upon all the leaders of the Americas to adopt, respect and come into line with the 13 clauses of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression. This will ensure recognition of the fact that freedom of expression comes before all other human rights, as any violation of these – such as torture, murder, corruption or kidnapping – goes unpunished and proliferates when there is no freedom of expression.
“To guarantee this human right first is nothing more than to respect the person with all his or her values and free will, essential ingredients for there to be full democracy.
“We in the IAPA are confident that our advocacy of free speech, press freedom and the right to information is changing people’s and governments’ attitudes. We see an indication of this in the democratic values that the people of Peru have recovered, the legislative reforms in Chile that threw out censorship and the hounding of news media and individual journalists, and we are certain that in Cuba democracy will be restored once the government there stops condemning its citizens to silence and misinformation.
“We must not let our guard down in this battle. Unfortunately, in a number of countries there are still backward-looking politicians and leaders who punish the people by not allowing journalists to be able to report freely. Their insult laws, a shield behind which officials can hide their unlawful activity, make criminals of journalists, who have to pay the price of being jailed. They are laws that use fear in a bid to create a climate of self-censorship and undermine the credibility of the news media.
“It is true that in a number of countries there is an attempt to amend harmful press laws. But we similarly repudiate this attitude and the excuse of ‘aggrandizement’ advocated by certain politicians and legislatures. It should be understood that there is no better legal reform than that which seeks to do away with any press law or regulatory legislation, under the IAPA’s unswerving contention that ‘the best press law is the one that does not exist.’
“We remain deeply concerned in noting that in many countries there are judiciaries covertly manipulated by the political powers that be, or act at their behest, robbing them of independence and impartiality, essential values for the fair treatment of human beings in society. There are also judiciaries that are arrogant enough to believe that they may impose prior censorship, and judges and public prosecutors who fear getting bad press.
“We have reached such conclusions not only because we are observers of how justice is administered day to day but also because we investigate every day and evaluate the damage that is done by allowing those who commit crimes against journalists to go unpunished, in many cases as the result of the complicity existing in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government that has caused those responsible for the nearly 230 murders of journalists in the past 12 years to literally get away with murder. We have found that not only is there complicity in these crimes between those sectors and outlawed groups, such as drug traffickers, guerrillas and paramilitaries, but also in many cases direct involvement – by politicians, municipal council members, legislators, police officers and judges either actually committing the murders themselves or masterminding them.
“Fortunately, we have had a very favorable response in these cases from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, who supports this struggle by requiring that governments concerned continue investigating the crimes and bring the guilty to justice.
“We have waged our battle for free speech and press freedom and the people’s right to be informed on many other fronts. In the area of education, through our Press Institute we have forged alliances with major American universities – among them Northwestern University, the University of Missouri and the University of Miami – with the aim of providing more professional skills to news media and journalists in the region, based on the awareness that a healthy press is synonymous with a free and independent press.
“We also have in this regard a major commitment to journalism schools in Latin America. Through our accreditation system we are exerting a positive influence on the course content, so as to enable future professionals to more closely meet the needs of the media. This in no way, however, means that we are changing our opposition to licensing of journalists. Belonging to a colegio, professional association or trade union has our full support – so long as such membership is purely voluntary.
“As for the championing of free speech, we will continue with our Chapultepec national forums, through which in each country in turn we bring together ordinary citizens, community leaders and scholars to discuss the need to create an awareness of the fact that without freedom of expression and of the press there can be no true democracy, and vice versa.
“In this general context in the next few months we also plan to work with the World Bank to attack the issue of poverty in Latin America and with the Inter-American Development Bank we will be organizing courses and seminars with the participation of judges and jurists on the need to create a solid doctrine in the area of freedom of information, with the principal aim of strengthening this right to the benefit of all the people of the Americas and of the world.”
