Ecuador

Resolution of the 62nd General Assembly Mexico City, Mexico September 29 – October 3, 2006 WHEREAS on May 18, 2004, the Ecuadorean Congress passed the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information, and on May 28, 2005, the president of Ecuador issued the regulations to implement this law WHEREAS the Inter American Press Association recognized the initiative shown by the Ecuadorean Congress in passing the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information as a positive one WHEREAS the report by the Vice Chairman of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information detailed cases in which the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information has not been obeyed, or in which the courts have delayed enforcing the law WHEREAS a forum on access to public information held on July 31, 2006, in Quito, and organized by the IAPA and the Ecuadorean Newspaper Publishers Association, concluded that in Ecuador, some exceptions aside, the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information is not being obeyed WHEREAS Principle 3 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “The authorities must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and reasonable manner the information generated by the public sector. No journalist may be forced to reveal his or her sources of information” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the Ecuadorean government and its agencies and state-owned enterprises to abide by the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information and implement mechanisms to provide the public with effective, practical access to information held by public-sector entities to urge the proper courts to enforce the Law on Transparency and Freedom of Information without delay.