Bolivia

WHEREAS Bolivia’s National Congress recently enacted a statute that would suspend during the June elections the restriction in Article 119 of the new Electoral Code, which places restrictions on the media in relation to paid electoral announcements – in violation of press freedom WHEREAS El Diario editor Jorge Carrasco Jahnsen remains incarcerated as the prime suspect in the violent death this past April of his wife, Teresa Guzmán de Carrasco, who was an editor at the same publication’s magazine WHEREAS Principles 1 and 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec declare that “No 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;” and that “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators; such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly” THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to recommend to Bolivia’s National Congress the repeal of Article 119 of the Electoral Code, so it is not enforced in the next municipal elections or in the general elections, because it is considered a threat to press and business freedom to recommend to the courts that they proceed with transparency and justice in the trial of the former editor of La Paz newspaper El Diario, Jorge Carrasco Jahnsen, for the murder of his wife, and guarantee his constitutional rights and the presumption of innocence established in the Constitution unless and until his guilt is proven in a fair and impartial trial.