(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 6 February 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA condemns censorship of newspaper by Argentine judge Miami (February 6, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has strongly objected to a judge’s ruling against El Tribuno newspaper, in the northern Argentine province of Salta, which prohibits the publication of information […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 6 February 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA condemns censorship of newspaper by Argentine judge
Miami (February 6, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has strongly objected to a judge’s ruling against El Tribuno newspaper, in the northern Argentine province of Salta, which prohibits the publication of information on a notorious case of public interest. The organisation termed the decision “prior censorship and interference.”
On February 2, 2004, Judge Guillermo Félix Díaz decided to censor the editors of El Tribuno, under threat of a fine, ordering them “to abstain from using expressions, sentences, phrases, or words that could influence a presumption of innocence, or publishing the picture of Francisco José Alvarez.” Alvarez is accused of murder but his case was dismissed on a legal technicality.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, stated, “We are concerned about the way a judge can take such a serious measure that restricts freedom of the press and prevents a newspaper from reporting on an important issue to the public.”
The ruling, on the request of Alvarez’s brother, who is an attorney, covers “articles, commentaries, signed or unsigned, whatever the circumstance, relating to the acts that were investigated” in the criminal case, whose details captured the attention of the local community. Some government officials in Salta have called for a new investigation.
“[This] is a deliberate attempt to silence the press so that they cannot voice an opinion, which goes against the . . . Declaration of Chapultepec and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the Organization of American States, both of which guarantee the right to information and prohibit prior censorship,” added Molina, from El Nacional newspaper, in the Dominican Republic.
Molina stressed the importance of having this restriction lifted so that Salta citizens’ right to information is not violated.
