Venezuela II

Resolution of the Midyear Meeting Quito, Ecuador WHEREAS Marco Hernández, who identified himself as a Venezuelan journalist and later as president of the nongovernmental organization Journalists for Truth, spoke up during the March 18 discussion of the country-by-country reports on press freedom WHEREAS Hernández excoriated the IAPA as an organization of media owners and criticized the content of the Venezuela report WHEREAS he said that the Quito newspapers Hoy and El Comercio refused to sell him advertising space for information on the political situation in Venezuela, and he left the room as soon as he finished speaking WHEREAS representatives of both newspapers denied that such advertising space had been requested or denied WHEREAS on March 20, during the approval of the country-by-country reports and resolutions, Venezuelan legislator Daniel Hernández spoke up and stated that there is full freedom of information in his country in accordance with international standards, and he said he would be glad to welcome an IAPA delegation at the National Assembly and the Ministry of Information WHEREAS the Venezuelan delegation of the IAPA had previously requested that a mission be sent to confirm, observe, and analyze violations of press freedom in Venezuela THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to send an international mission to Venezuela to collect further information on the current status of freedom of expression and press freedom in the country, and thereby follow up on the many previous IAPA missions to Venezuela during the current administration.