WHEREAS the national press associations of Latin America have been holding meetings in conjunction with the Inter American Press Association for eight years for the purpose of coordinating common strategies to face the problems that affect freedom of expression on the continent
WHEREAS various of these threats cut across national borders in the region, for which reason they require, more than ever, joint coordinated plans to face up to them, both in terms of physical violence and in regard to the risks and administrative, legal, and judicial restrictions on the exercise of journalism and enjoyment of the citizens of the right to information
WHEREAS among these threats are murder and other forms of violence against journalists, starting from the actions of organized crime and the mafias, often in complicity with local officials, as well as the impunity that tragically accompanies a large majority of these crimes
WHEREAS there is a multiplicity of legal and regulatory frameworks intended to reduce the reach of the independent press, and affect its sustainability, control its contents, and favor the exponential growth of governmental and para-governmental media
WHEREAS the judicial persecution against the media and journalists is becoming more profound, starting with the abusive and forced application of specific or general legislation; to this may be added the manipulation of judicial institutions on the part of national and local political forces, for the purpose of achieving results favorable to the governments
WHEREAS the policies of expropriation, creation, and co-opting of media on the part of governments for the purpose of using them, not as public media, but rather as organs of political propaganda and governmental interests
WHEREAS there is also exponential growth of other corrupt practices that imply indirect censorship, such as the abusive use of official advertising or discrimination in the granting of licenses and the application of sanctions to award or punish media in accordance with their editorial line
WHEREAS some governments are loathe to accept decisions of the Inter American Court of Human Rights that have questioned these practices, as well as to adopt the jurisprudence and recommendations issued by that Court and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights
WHEREAS these kinds of conduct systematically violate the 10 principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec
THE IAPA 67 GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to join forces with the national press associations of Latin America in strengthening our common work in facing the growing challenges that affect the countries of the continent in regard to freedom on the press
to share with those entities an annual agenda of activities intended to face up to such challenges within a framework of unity and solidarity of the press on the continent, which may come to include other journalistic organizations of civil society
to push forward innovative actions, along with those associations, directed toward strengthening the supranational legal protections and social awareness of the new forms of harassment against the press to defend the right or our societies to the freedom of expression.
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Madrid, Spain