Ecuador

WHEREAS several bills are before the legislature that seriously limit press freedom and the right to information WHEREAS the proposed Children's and Teenagers' Code now being debated in the National Congress contains several provisions that would restrict press freedom WHEREAS the proposed Children's and Teenagers' Code stipulates certain requirements for the media, such as establishing and maintaining spaces in newspapers for children and teenagers, including spaces in indigenous languages in places where most of the population are indigenous people and providing free space for publication of court and administrative orders, and institutional or personal requests to locate boys, girls, teenagers, their parents and relatives WHEREAS the bill to establish the constitutional court would provide for habeas data motions allowing all citizens access to documents of private entities, including the media, which would violate the confidentiality of news sources and seriously affect the free flow of news WHEREAS Principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "[n]o people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people" WHEREAS Principle 3 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "[t]he 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" WHEREAS Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "[p]rior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press" THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the National Congress not to approve the provisions mentioned in the above bills which would restrict press freedom and the right to information to ask the National Congress to adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which was signed in 1999 by representatives of the three branches of government.