COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA WHEREAS the Colombian Congress is considering three bills that seek to suspend existing broadcast licenses for television news programs so that the present government can reassign them the legislators sponsoring the bilis have been the most outspoken defenders of the government in Congress almost all of the news programs have been reporting independently during the political crisis that has surrounded the government of President Ernesto Samper THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to ask the Colombian Congress to defeat these bills which, on the pretext of "democratizing television news programs," seek to underrnine the independence and plurality of television newscasts to urge the government of President Samper explicitly to oppose these bilis and thus end any ambiguity over any tacit executive branch support for them.