Licensing

LICENSING WHEREAS obligatory membership in a guild as well as the licensing of journalists or requiring a university degree to practice journalism constitute a flagrant violation of press freedom and of the free expression of thought, as well as affecting other rights, such as the right to work in spite of the fact that such requirements are incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights, as recognized by the lnter-American Human Rights Court , several nations of the Americas have legal regulations that establish these type of restrictions sorne political interests have recently stepped up the campaign in sorne countries to approve regulations restricting freedom of expression in these ways, or to strengthen already existing restrictions THE 50TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE lAPA RESOLVES to denounce obligatory membership in a journalists guild and prior licensing of journalists as the greatest threat and attack on freedom of the press in the American continent to demand that governments of countries where laws of this type are on the books abolish them, thereby adhering to international conventions on human rights and their own constitutions to call upon legislative or executive branches, whichever is applicable, not to proceed with any regulations infringing freedom of expression, freedom of the press, or the free exercise of journalistic activities, where such restrictive laws are being considered to ask members of the lnter American Press Association in the face of such serious threats to report and editorialize on the subject so that public opinion, government officials and journalists themselves become aware of the significance of limitations on human rights. These regulations would be a step backwards for democracy in the Americas.