Aruba

WHEREAS Netherlands Antilles Prime Minister Emily De Jongh-Elhage in her address to the Inter American Press Association’s Midyear Meeting announced that her government intends to draft and have enacted a Media Law WHEREAS according to the Prime Minister this law would regulate the operation and content of news media, designed among other objectives to protect privacy WHEREAS the IAPA has repeatedly come out against specific legislation on the press, as it tends to restrict, directly or indirectly, freedom of information and has held that the contingent responsibilities of the media should be regulated under ordinary legislation THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to call upon the government of the Netherlands Antilles to prevent the enactment of any regulations that could restrict, directly or indirectly, the operation and content of the media and in general the people’s freedom of expression and information to urge that there be no legislative or administrative regulations specific to the press, whose responsibilities should be confined to being governed by ordinary legislation.