(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 1 May 2006 IAPA press release: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to sign the Declaration of Chapultepec during the World Press Freedom Day IAPA and ANJ will analyze in Brasilia access to information and decriminalization of libel and slander. Miami (May 1st, 2006) – May 3rd, International Press […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 1 May 2006 IAPA press release:
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to sign the Declaration of Chapultepec during the World Press Freedom Day
IAPA and ANJ will analyze in Brasilia access to information and decriminalization of libel and slander.
Miami (May 1st, 2006) – May 3rd, International Press Freedom Day, will be celebrated at the seats of government in Brasilia where the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Brazilian Association of Newspapers (ANJ) will hold a Legislative Conference on Press Freedom in Brazil followed by a ceremony at the Palacio do Planalto capped by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s signing of the Declaration of Chapultepec.
The signing by President Lula marks the reaffirmation of the Brazilian government’s commitment to the Declaration’s 10 principles of press freedom. Since it was drafted in 1994, the Declaration of Chapultepec has been signed by 44 heads of state, including Fernando Henrique Cardoso in August 1996 during his Presidency.
Wednesday’s Legislative Conference on Press Freedom in Brazil will be held for lawmakers at the Palacio do Congreso and will be broadcast nationwide by TV CAMARA. Inaugurating the conference will be Minister Ellen Gracie Northfleet, President of the Supreme Court, and Deputy Aldo Rebelo, President of the lower House, joined by Diana Daniels, President of the IAPA, The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C.; Bartolome Mitre, Chairman of the Chapultepec Committee, La Nacion, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Jose Roberto Dutriz, Director of the IAPA, La Prensa Grafica, San Salvador, El Salvador; Nelson Sirotsky, President of ANJ and Julio Muñoz, Executive Director of the IAPA.
It is expected to bring together over 100 Senators, Deputies, jurists, publishers and editors to analyze legislative barriers to press freedom in Brazil and focus on the stalled Access to Information bill in the lower house as well as the decriminalization of libel and slander, which presents a unique dilemma in Brazil where both are considered fundamental human rights under Brazil’s 1988 Constitution. A second panel will address the issue of direct and indirect interference/intervention in content.
This is the 6th in the Chapultepec series of Legislative conferences, held previously in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina and Panama. IAPA’s Chapultepec Project was born of the Declaration issued following the March 1994 Hemispheric Summit on Press Freedom in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle. Its purpose over the years has been to promote widespread understanding and interpretation of the right to press freedom as measured by the ten principles of the Declaration.
The program’s first phase focused on gaining the support and commitment of the Executive branches; the second phase on training the region’s judicial branches; and the third focuses on legislative reforms at the congressional levels. The Hemisphere Summit on Justice and Freedom of the Press in the Americas, 2002, and the Summit of National Congresses of the Americas on Freedom of the Press, 2004, launched the second and third stages, respectively.
The Chapultepec project is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.
