Guatemala

WHEREAS there is a deliberate state policy to discredit the independent press and limit journalists' access to sources amid a climate of confrontation and threats WHEREAS Congress approved a Licensing Law that threatens press freedom and is studying changes to laws that also would restrict the fundamental principles guaranteed by the Constitution and recorded in the Declaration of Chapultepec and especially the American Convention on Human Rights WHEREAS Threats and attacks on reporters and columnists have been reported and it is feared that they may constitute a campaign to intimidate the press in general because of its reports about corruption in the government WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "[f]reedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators; [s]uch acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly" 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" WHEREAS Principle 8 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "the membership of journalists in guilds, their affiliation to professional and trade associations and the affiliation of the media with business groups must be strictly voluntary" THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to ask Congress, as a way to strengthen democratic principles, not to introduce or approve any legislation that could restrict press freedom to demand that the president respect journalists' work, end confrontational rhetoric and the policy of disparaging the press and that he encourage the investigation of reports of threats and attacks on reporters and columnists to urge the Constitutional Court to ratify as soon as possible its ruling against obligatory licensing of journalists in accordance with Guatemalan legislation and international agreements signed by Guatemala that guarantee press freedom without licensing or censorship.