The organization seeks an increase in the number of countries with laws on access to public information, release of journalists from prison in Cuba, repeal of insult laws, and an end to using official advertising as a means of censorship.
MIAMI, Florida (July 18, 2008)The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today stressed the need for governments to respect press freedom and free speech as essential values for democracy. It criticized several public officials in the Americas for their statements that harass and blame journalists for destabilizing the democratic process.
At their meeting here today senior IAPA Executive Committee officers reviewed reports of attacks on freedom of the press over the past three months. They expressed concern at the increased demonstrations of hostility towards individual journalists and news media, particularly by government officials in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, which in many cases have led to physical attacks on and threats to journalists.
IAPA President Earl Maucker said what is needed is a strengthening of democracy and for this he urged the legislatures of Guatemala, Brazil and Chile to pass laws providing for access to public information. The editor and senior vice president of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, newspaper Sun-Sentinel added, We anticipate that the Guatemalan Congress will pass legislation this week, proving once again that transparency in government is a highly democratic value.
Maucker also renewed his trust that debate would be restored on government openness in Argentina and Paraguay and he called on those countries that already have transparency laws Canada, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru and United States to reinforce their legislation and educate the public on how to put it to work.
After reviewing the political changes and greater economic openness undertaken by the Cuban government the IAPA concluded that it is not enough.
The chairman of the organizations Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, declared that if the government of Cuba wants to be taken seriously it should begin by freeing the 25 independent journalists that it is holding in prison along with all its other prisoners of conscience and allow journalists free movement throughout the nation.
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, added, All we are asking for is compliance with what is the basic responsibility of all democratic governments in the world. It is impossible to conceive that in our Americas the imprisonment of journalists, many of them in poor health, is still tolerated.
The IAPA has identified the following journalists currently behind bars in Cuba: Ricardo González Alfonso, Víctor Rolando Arroyo, Normando Hernández González, Julio César Gálvez, Adolfo Fernández Sainz, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo, Pedro Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, Alfredo Pulido López, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Iván Hernández Carrillo, José Luis García Paneque, Juan Carlos Herrera, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, José Ubaldo Izquierdo, Omar Ruiz Hernández, Léster Luis González Pentón, Alfredo Felipe, Alberto Gil Triay, Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez, Raymundo Perdigón Brito, Ramón Velázquez Toranso and Oscar Sánchez Madan.
The Executive Committee warned of the danger to democracy represented by the increase in state-owned news media witnessed in Bolivia and Venezuela, and expressed concern at the takeover of privately-owned media outlets in Ecuador without the government divulging its intentions concerning their future ownership.
Another major discussion at this afternoons meeting concerned the violence unleashed against the press and there was a unanimous call for greater efforts to investigate crimes committed in recent months and bring the guilty to justice. During the last three months the following journalists were murdered: César Raúl Rodríguez Coronel, Ecuador; Pierre Fould Gerges and Javier García, Venezuela; Jorge Mérida Pérez, Guatemala; Eliecer Iván Santa María Ríos, Panama; Teresa Bautista Flores and Felicitas Martínez, Mexico, and Carlos Quispe Quispe, Bolivia.
On the positive side the IAPA praised the work of Ecuadorian investigators who identified and arrested the alleged murderers of César Raúl Rodríguez Coronel and Carlos Navarrete in crimes believed to be unrelated to their work as journalists. It also commended Peruvian courts for their decisions in the cases of the 2004 murder of journalists Alberto Rivera Fernández and Antonio de la Torre Echenadía and another in 2007 of Miguel Pérez Julca.
The IAPA also cited positively Mexican President Felipe Calderóns willingness to introduce a bill in Congress for constitutional reform that seeks to bring crimes against journalists under federal jurisdiction. Similarly, it hailed the conclusions of more than 50 newspaper executives attending last months Second Meeting of Editors and Publishers of the Mexican Republic, who called for legislative action to combat violence and impunity. Among other actions it urged Mexicos executive branch to give new direction to the work of the Special Prosecutors Office for Dealing with Crimes Committed Against Journalists, which it called ineffective, and called on Congress to amend penal codes and the Organic Law of the Judiciary to stiffen penalties and lengthen statutes of limitations in crimes against freedom of expression and the press.
The IAPA officers urged local and national governments in various countries in the region to stop using placement of official advertising to reward or punish news media. They drew attention to the case of Nicaragua, where the government of President Daniel Ortega placed 80% of official advertising with Canal 4 television and an outdoor promotion company, both operated by members of his family. On this issue the IAPA also denounced the discriminatory behavior of the governments of Bermuda, Guyana, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, insisting that technical, objective and transparent criteria should be applied to decide official ad placement.
With a number of election campaigns on the calendar, the IAPA expressed concern at court-ordered restrictions on reporting them, particularly in Brazil where a number of media outlets were censored and fined in court rulings that failed to distinguish between information and electoral propaganda.
Finally, the hemisphere free press organization expressed its pleasure that the government of Uruguay had sent a bill to Congress that would repeal the concept of contempt and amend libel and defamation laws. Insult laws have already been repealed in Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.
