It will hold special working session with Mexican federal lawmakers to pursue action to protect the press
MIAMI, Florida (November 2, 2010)—More than 400 editors, publishers and executives of newspapers throughout the Americas are to look into the press freedom problems besetting the countries of the region during the General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) beginning on Friday (November 5) in Mérida, in the Mexican state of Yucatán,
The General Assembly, which will have the participation of the presidents of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, and Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, has as its main objective a review of the problems affecting free speech and press freedom in the Western Hemisphere and coming up with strategies to protect those fundamental human rights.
In addition to the violence unleashed against the press by organized crime and the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists as the central point of discussion the meeting will also look into legal limits being placed on freedom of expression, such as the current media law in Argentina and controversial legislation on communication in Ecuador, as well as electoral laws restricting the ability to report in countries such as Bolivia and the absence of a federal shield law to protect the identity of confidential sources in the United States.
Also to be reviewed will be court actions against the press in Brazil, Canada and Uruguay, involvement of governments in the purchase, creation or expropriation of news media, as in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Honduras, and forcing independent Cuban journalists to flee the country on their release from prison.
On the issue of the murder of journalists – 21 such cases so far this year alone, 10 of them in Mexico – and sparse governmental protection the IAPA officers will be holding a special working session with Mexican federal legislators to follow up what the organization has been urging in the country regarding making such crimes federal offenses, a stiffening of penalties, and that there be no statute of limitations applied in these cases.
The group of lawmakers, several of whom are members of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies Special Committee for Following Up Attacks Upon Journalists and News Media, is made up of María Yolanda Valencia Vales (PAN, Yucatán), the committee chair; Justino Eugenio Arriaga Rojas (PAN, Guanajuato); Rubén Ignacio Moreira Valdez (PRI, Coahuila); Rodrigo Reina Liceaga (PRI, Mexico); Jaime Fernando Cárdenas Gracia (PT, Federal District); Agustín Guerrero Castillo (PRD, Federal District); Dolores de los Ángeles Nazares Jerónimo (PRD, Michoacán); Juan Carlos Natale López (PVEM, Puebla); Manuel Jesús Clouthier Carrillo (PAN, Sinaloa) and Ernesto Efraín Aguilar Góngora (PRI, Yucatán).
The General Assembly will be held from Friday through next Tuesday (November 9), winding up with adoption of the meeting’s conclusions and resolutions and election of the incoming IAPA president, who will head the organization for the coming year.
For more information on the General Assembly go to: http://sip-asambleas.org/home.php.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
