(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – The following is a 17 April 2003 PERIODISTAS press release: PERIODISTAS meets with President Duhalde On 20 and 27 March 2003, a PERIODISTAS delegation led by the organisation’s president, Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazú, met with President Eduardo Duhalde. The organisation expressed its concern over the number of censorship cases and attacks on journalists by […]
(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – The following is a 17 April 2003 PERIODISTAS press release:
PERIODISTAS meets with President Duhalde
On 20 and 27 March 2003, a PERIODISTAS delegation led by the organisation’s president, Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazú, met with President Eduardo Duhalde. The organisation expressed its concern over the number of censorship cases and attacks on journalists by security forces and government officials in Argentina. PERIODISTAS told the president that these incidents pose threats to freedom of expression in the country.
During the first meeting, PERIODISTAS provided the president with a summary of the most serious violations throughout 2002 and to date in 2003. The president was surprised by the increasing number of incidents and admitted that the attacks had been unjustified.
Duhalde convened a second meeting on 27 March, in which Justice, Security and Human Rights Minister Juan José Álvarez and Federal Police Chief Roberto Giacomino also participated. On 26 March, a group of television reporters were assaulted by Federal Police officers while they were covering a demonstration outside the Congress building in Buenos Aires. After the meeting, Minister Álvarez announced that one police officer had been suspended and that his department would not permit such attacks on the media in the future.
President Duhalde concluded that “those who violate press freedom by committing acts that can result in physical or psychological harm, or prevent journalists from fulfilling their function to inform must be duly punished. It has to be made absolutely clear that the government will not tolerate such acts.”
PERIODISTAS believes the meetings were an important first step in developing a relationship with the president and a possible avenue by which the organisation could condemn attacks on journalists in the future. The organisation also expressed the hope that the government would confront the situation without delay.
