Bolivia

WHEREAS the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales moved from inciting pro-government social organizations to assault and physical attack journalists and news media outlets to a strategy of drafting and enacting laws that curtail freedom of expression and violate the national and international juridical principles that guarantee it; and WHEREAS the otherwise commendable Law Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination, enacted by the government in October, contains Article 16 which provides for the closure of media that authorize or disseminate vague and imprecise racist or discriminatory “ideas,” thus curtailing freedom of expression WHEREAS Article 23 of that same law provides for imprisonment of one to five years for journalists or social communicators who engage in imprecise and undetermined ”racist” or “discriminatory” acts, violating the Bolivian Constitution; and WHEREAS those responsible for reports by news media and journalists with radio and television stations are already beginning to resort to prior censorship and self-censorship so that their media do not get closed down; WHEREAS the Electoral Law, enacted in June, includes articles that prohibit candidates for the judicial branch of government from making statements to the press and provides for fines on those breaking this rule WHEREAS despite the promises of the Interior Ministry there continues to be without investigation and unpunished the September 3, 2009 firearm attack on journalists from the Unitel television network by a police team headed by Police Captain Walter Andrade WHEREAS the Principle 2 of The Declaration of Chapultepec says that “no one may restrict or deny “the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely” THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to call on the government of President Evo Morales to abstain from continuing to enact laws that curtail freedom of expression and adjust its proposed legislation to the standards of the Bolivian Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of Chapultepec and other international treaties subscribed to by the Bolivian government; to ask the government and Legislative Assembly to reinstate freedom of expression and of the press in Bolivia by eliminating Articles 16 and 23 of the Law Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination, and to Electoral Law and other laws enacted this year, eliminating those articles that violate freedom of expression and of the press: to ask the Interior Ministry to comply with its commitment made to Bolivian press organizations to investigate and punish in an appropriate manner the members of an elite police team, headed by Captain Walter Andrade, which staged a firearm attack in September 2009 upon a reporter, a cameraman and a driver from the Unitel television network, so that this matter does not remain unpunished.