(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 10 December 2008 IAPA press release: World press associations committee calls for more guarantees for press freedom in Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela NEW YORK, NY (December 10, 2008) – The global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations yesterday demanded more guarantees for freedom of the […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 10 December 2008 IAPA press release:
World press associations committee calls for more guarantees for press freedom in Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela
NEW YORK, NY (December 10, 2008) – The global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations yesterday demanded more guarantees for freedom of the press and of expression in Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela during a special session here on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) was represented at the meeting by its president, Enrique Santos Calderón, El Tiempo, Bogotá, Colombia; International Affairs Committee Chairman Jorge Canahuati, La Prensa, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz.
The organizations present at the half-yearly meeting which discussed the major press freedom issues in the world, in addition to the IAPA, were the International Association of Broadcasting, World Press Freedom Committee, Committee to Protect Journalists and International Press Institute.
Within the framework of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the World Press Freedom Commission (WPFC) hosted a lunch at which American lawyer Floyd Abrams gave a presentation on the relationship between Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
During the event the WPFC’s Dana Bullen Press Freedom Award was presented to Leonard Sussman, former executive director of Freedom House, for having created in that organization in 1980 the annual statistical survey which numerically rates countries according to their performance on freedom of the press.
To read the full text of the resolutions adopted on Latin American countries, see: http://www.sipiapa.com/v4/index.php?page=cont_comunicados&seccion=detalles&idioma=us&id=4107
