(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a 21 July 2005 WPFC letter to Panamanian President Martín Torrijos Espino: Washington, USA, July 21, 2005 His Excellency Martín Torrijos Espino President of the Republic of Panama Presidential Palace Panama City, Panama cc: Honorable Deputy Jerry Wilson Navarro, President of the National Assembly Your Excellency: On behalf of the […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a 21 July 2005 WPFC letter to Panamanian President Martín Torrijos Espino:
Washington, USA, July 21, 2005
His Excellency Martín Torrijos Espino
President of the Republic of Panama
Presidential Palace
Panama City, Panama
cc: Honorable Deputy Jerry Wilson Navarro, President of the National Assembly
Your Excellency:
On behalf of the World Press Freedom Committee (http://www.wpfc.org), an organization comprising 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world, I wish to applaud the enactment of Law 22 “which prohibits the imposition of insult sanctions” in Panamanian legislation, and at the same time I urge you and the National Assembly to take the final steps in order to completely eliminate the crime of insult in Panama.
The new law states the following: “No public official with rank and jurisdiction shall impose any fines on or dictate prison sentences for those who are deemed to have treated them with disrespect or have insulted them while fulfilling their official duties.”
Thus, Panama takes a decisive step toward the complete elimination of the crime of insult and joining a handful of Latin American nations that have already done so, Argentina, Costa Rica, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru. But there still remain several unresolved issues.
The same law makes an exception for certain public officials as defined in Article 33 of the Constitution, which, in part, states the following: “Those public officials with rank and jurisdiction (. . .) shall be able to impose fines to or order arrests for any person who insults them or treat them with disrespect while fulfilling their official duties or because of their fulfilling their official duties.”
Likewise, the crime of insult is still contemplated in two articles of the Criminal Code. Article 307 states the following: “Those who offend or affront the President of the Republic or the acting President shall be punished with six to ten months in prison and fined 20 to 50 days worth of income.” And Article 308 declares the following: “Those who publicly insult any of the State agencies shall be punished with six to 12 months of prison and fined 50 to 100 days worth of income”.
Insult laws are holdovers from colonial or autocratic eras; their origins date back to the Roman Empire, which created them in order to shield the emperor from criticism from the rest of the public.
These laws constitute a challenge to the Inter-American justice system, which, through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, has declared insult laws “contradictory” to Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, to which Panama is a signatory.
The National Assembly has a magnificent opportunity to either eliminate or reform these laws during the upcoming legislative debates, and several representatives have expressed their intentions to introduce such reforms. I urge you to continue showing leadership to democratize the laws that directly affect the workings of a free and independent press by insisting on the total elimination of the crime of insult in Panama.
Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee
