MIAMI, Florida (April 13, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) at its Midyear Meeting in San Diego, California, adopted a series of resolutions that are being sent to the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, United States and Venezuela, calling on them to take corrective action on situations in which freedom of the press is being restricted.
Regarding Argentina among other aspects the resolution urges the government to end the arbitrary placement of official advertising in the news media. In the case of Bolivia the IAPA asks the country’s legislature to throw out clauses in laws that constitute clear censorship of the press and curtailment of freedom of expression.
The resolution on Cuba demands a halt to acts of surveillance, control and repression of independent journalists and bloggers and condemns the ongoing governmental control over the Internet and the blocking of Web sites.
The IAPA resolved to decry charges filed by the government of Ecuador against executives of the newspaper El Universo and reporter Emilio Palacio, contrary to inter-American standards regarding freedom of expression, and called for immediate withdrawal of the charges.
Concerning the United States the IAPA reminds President Barack Obama of his pledge to begin “a new era of open government” characterized by transparency in public affairs, while the president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, was asked to take the necessary steps to determine the motives of crimes committed against journalists.
In the case of Peru the Transportation and Communications Ministry is asked to stop administrative and legal harassment of radio station La Voz de Bagua. And in that of Venezuela the IAPA denounces before the Organization of American States and the United Nations laws sanctioned by President Hugo Chávez violating democratic principles, and calls on him to comply with the Constitution and international treaties, and to allow the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the country.
All the IAPA’s resolutions, conclusions and country reports can be found at the Web site www.sipiapa.org.
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.
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