Bolivia

WHEREAS passage in Bolivia of a News Media Law designed to “teach” journalists “not to lie” is imminent, according to what is gathered from statements made by President Evo Morales WHEREAS insults made by President Evo Morales and national and departmental officials against journalists have not ceased and the President is seeking to politicize the role of the press in holding that journalists must fight against imperialism and raise a clenched fist when they ask questions at press conferences in the Government Palace WHEREAS some news media and journalists fear they are victims of retaliation and punishment by the government, thus increasing the level of self-censorship WHEREAS it is becoming a dangerous practice of intimidation that public prosecutors call in journalists to testify in cases with political content WHEREAS press organizations have set up their own ethics tribunals as essential mechanisms for self-regulation, in accordance with the national Constitution WHEREAS the two sole supreme decrees on access to information are not fully complied with by officials of the public institutions of the three branches of government and a bill for a law on the issue, drawn up four years ago, remains shelved in Congress THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to urge the executive and legislative branches of government to abstain from drawing up and enacting laws that go against freedom of expression and of the press and other rights enshrined in the Constitution and other human rights declarations of the United Nations and the Orgnization of American States to reiterate to President Evo Morales and to officials of the government agencies that they abstain from continuing to insult and intimidate journalists and news media, that being a form of indirect censorship to demand that public prosecutors and judicial authorities not call upon journalists to be witnesses concerning events occurring in the country and reported on in news media, in that this amounts to a form of intimidation and harassment that limits freedom of expression to encourage President Morales, officials and citizens to put to the ethics tribunals their complaints against journalists and media when they feel offended by news reports to demand of the executive and legislative branches of government the promulgation of and compliance with a Law on Access to Information that is within the framework of the United Nations and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights anti-corruption treaties to urge the Interior Ministry and police to punish those officials and members of the police Delta Group who attacked reporters from the UNITEL television network on September 3, 2009 and from PAT television on November 26.