Report of IAPA President, Enrique Santos to the Board of Directors
Missions, forums, seminars and above all an immediate presence at any place in the Americas where we were required marked this year now ending. A year of real intensity, because intense have been the threats to freedom of the press, but one that leaves us with a very positive balance. From Madrid to Buenos Aires have been 12 months that enabled us to carry out an agenda that was strong in actions and in achievements.
Today we find ourselves in a city and a country that have close historical ties with the IAPA. And just as yesterday, Argentina today is facing serious challenges in its battle to maintain press freedom, threatened by laws that are harmful for news media.
Before going into details about my period in office I would like to let our Board of Directors know that the Inter American Press Association is financially sound, as you will see when the financial reports are presented. But perhaps more important is the fact that we are not having a membership crisis nor one of participation. While the economic crisis remains strong, especially in the countries to the north, we have in this General Assembly a very good turnout, with more than 50 representatives of North American organizations. That is good news.
Following the General Assembly in Madrid we went to Lima, where we held a Chapultepec Conference and received the support of Peruvian members of Congress of all parties, who pledged to act in accordance with current legislation regarding access to public information and at the time same they signed the Declaration of Chapultepec.
After that there was a mission to Nicaragua, a country with major confrontation between the government and the press. Although President Ortega refused to receive us we met with all leading representatives of the community and we were given strong support for the work of the IAPA.
In December we went to New York to meet with the Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, where we asked for support for our campaign for greater guarantees for freedom of the press in Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Meanwhile, the chairman of our Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Bob Rivard, traveled to Bolivia to take part in a press forum there.
Asunción received us in March at the Midyear Meeting, which was held at a time when fellow associations canceled theirs due to the world economic crisis. A formidable Host Committee chaired by Aldo Zuccolillo provided us the framework that we needed in order to move ahead with our agenda.
In April we held in Mexico a conference on The Press, Government and Organized Crime, in which former President César Gaviria and Colombian police chief Oscar Naranjo were present, and which had the participation of more than 50 editors and publishers of inland media. The conclusion was a call to the government for the fight against organized crime to be carried under strict standards of transparency, and a further demand on the government to strengthen its defense of the work of the press, against which unprecedented violence had been unleashed by the drug cartels.
We then went on to travel to Bolivia in response to a request by the national newspapers association. For more than two hours we met with President Evo Morales and his cabinet members. Morales assured us that his government would maintain tolerance and respect for freedom of the press, while attacking the opposition media for publishing what he called libelous and defamatory articles. He was urged to improve relations with his countrys press.
The process that Honduras has undergone is another example of our active participation and of the importance of our always remaining on alert. From the very moment that it was learned of the coup détat the IAPA called for respect for the full practice of freedom of expression, criticizing the closure of some media and the expulsion of foreign journalists. On repeated occasions we denounced actions that we regarded as trampling free speech.
We then returned to Mexico, where we held a National Forum on Freedom of Expression and of the Press, sponsored by that countrys Supreme Court, the National Bar Association and members of the Judiciary. The objective was to promote an atmosphere of more transparent and unified work which would provide the Mexican justice system and journalists adequate tools for applying democratic standards and raising the publics awareness of the significance of press freedom and freedom of expression in a democratic society. At the same time, we went ahead with a Chapultepec Ambassadors program and brought in experts on the subject to university classrooms. We had carried out a similar program some weeks earlier in Guadalajara.
Perhaps one of the most successful activities of the year was a new Forum that we held on September 18 in Caracas, whose objective was to champion democracy and press freedom to authoritarian and populist governments. The program was sponsored by some 15 world and national press organizations and had the participation of, among others, former presidents Alejandro Toledo and Carlos Mesa. We made it clear that freedom of the press is under attack in the region due to the aversion of several governments hostile to criticism that shut down media outlets and pass threatening press laws. The IAPAs call to attention and response to these problems was well received and disseminated throughout the hemisphere.
I also represented the IAPA as chairman of the adjudication panel for the National Journalism Contest in Panama, at the commemoration of the 170th anniversary of the founding of El Comercio in Lima, and at the General Assembly of ADEPA of Argentina held in Salta in September.
Our last mission, in October, which I was unable to take part in, was to Quito, where with the Ecuadorean authorities we reviewed threats that media had received, constant attacks by that countrys president, and the serious implications of the press laws under debate there.
As you can see, we have been in practically every country facing threats to freedom of expression. Beyond this active itinerary of missions the organization had carried out many other activities of seminars organized by the Press Institute and the Impunity and Chapultepec programs.
We can conclude that the IAPA remains active and strong. And it is listened to with great attention where it is needed.
I believe, therefore, that I have complied with the commitment made when I assumed the Presidency a year ago in Madrid. And I have no doubt that the IAPA will continue without weakening on this path under the new leadership that tomorrow begins right here in Buenos Aires.
Thank you very much to all of you.
