The following is a 21 March 2000 IAPA press release: VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT’S REMARKS RAISE CONCERN MIAMI, Florida (Mar. 21) – The Inter American Press Association told Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today that it was concerned about remarks he made criticizing news media in his country. The association made the protest in a letter to Chávez […]
The following is a 21 March 2000 IAPA press release:
VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT’S REMARKS RAISE CONCERN
MIAMI, Florida (Mar. 21) – The Inter American Press Association told Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today that it was concerned about remarks he made criticizing news media in his country.
The association made the protest in a letter to Chávez signed by the chairman of the hemisphere free-press group’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, of the daily “El Nacional”, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The letter said (full text):
Mr. President:
In the name of more than 1,300 newspapers and magazines in the Western Hemisphere belonging to the Inter American Press Association, we view with concern the remarks you made against the Venezuelan news media. We take such comments to be a direct confrontation that does little to contribute to fostering a climate of respect for free speech and press freedom in your country.
Mr. President, we reject the attitude adopted by your government, which misjudges the role of the news media in a democracy. We are bewildered by your statement in which you admitted that you will take reprisals against those media that criticize your administration by declaring that “if they attack me, let them watch out, they’ll get as good as they give” and adding that “what there is behind the supposed freedom of expression is a freedom of manipulation.”
In light of our concern about the climate of hostility toward the press and the lack of understanding of due respect for the practice of journalism, we share with you the resolution adopted by the IAPA Board of Directors on March 14 in Cancún, México, whose text is as follows:
“The IAPA Board of Directors resolves:
To exhort the pertinent Venezuelan authorities not to utilize the constitutional concept of ‘timely, truthful and impartial information’ to draft any possible ‘Press Law’ which would make it impossible to practice journalism freely in an open and democratic society, such as is established in the American Convention on Human Rights, of which Venezuela is a signatory.”
This resolution was based on the following considerations:
“the new Venezuelan Constitution poses a series of risks for the exercise of freedom of expression and opinion by constitutionally establishing the ‘right to timely, truthful and impartial information’
“the concept of ‘timely, truthful and impartial information’ grants discretionary power to a ruling government to determine what truth should be disseminated
“the principles approved in the Constitution openly contravene the American Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the citizens of signatory nations free and unlimited access to ‘information and ideas of all kinds’
“a dangerous attitude exists on the part of the State, with the President of the Republic hurling constant threats and insults at the print media and its publishers, editors and journalists
“publishers and journalists are being sued in court, accused of contempt, defamation and libel, facing long, drawn-out trials because of a demand that their alleged offenses not be subject to any statue of limitations.”
