07 February 2014

International press organizations name main problems for freedom of expression

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Miami (February 7, 2014)— During a meeting held in London in mid-January, six international groups, members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, adopted resolutions addressing restrictions to public information, Ecuador’s communication law and policies limiting the flow of information in the United States.
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Miami (February 7, 2014)— During a meeting held in London in mid-January, six international groups, members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, adopted resolutions addressing restrictions to public information, Ecuador’s communication law and policies limiting the flow of information in the United States.

The resolutions were supported by the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU Media Trust), International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), International Press Institute (IPI), World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA), World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

Attached are the resolutions:

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

 

WHEREAS

restrictions on access to information continue to be one of the main limitations to freedom of expression and the public’s right to information in Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela, creating a lack of transparency contrary to the democratic principle of government  accountability

WHEREAS

when journalists and members of the public manage to obtain information from public offices in these countries on many occasions these are skimpy, discretionary and arbitrary official versions, difficult to corroborate due to restrictions and lack of legal recourse

WHEREAS

Argentina, Bolivia, Barbados, Costa Rica, Haiti and Venezuela lack national Freedom of Information laws, a legal vacuum that represents a special obstacle for the work of journalists

WHEREAS

in Canada the government does not provide information in a timely manner and indiscriminately uses the recourse of “classified information,” which led media organizations and press freedom groups to call for a review of the country’s antiquated FoI law

WHEREAS

in Colombia,  the Law on Transparency and Right to Public Information passed in 2012 has yet to be implemented

WHEREAS

in Cuba access to information continues to be limited as part of the state monopoly of information imposed on the country

WHEREAS

in Ecuador the 2004 Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information remains inoperative, and access to information has been further limited by the recently-passed Organic Law on Communications

WHEREAS

In El Salvador,  the Access to Public Information Institute (IAIP), created under the 2012 Law on Access to Information, was created and has been active in  resolving conflicts related to the classification and declassification of governmental information; however, access to information related to Congress remains limited

WHEREAS

in Nicaragua, in spite of the Law on Access to Public Information, requests are not dealt with and the government merely provides official information to sympathetic media

WHEREAS

in Panama the applicability of the country’s freedom of information law is occasionally subject to administrative restrictions that make it difficult to obtain information from public offices

WHEREAS

in Paraguay the Supreme Court set an important precedent in the field of access to information in requiring Congress to provide data on the assets, allowances and appointments of that body, while Congress has tabled for over a decade a legislative bill in this regard

WHEREAS

in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,  the Freedom of Information Law passed in 2003 remain ineffective

The organizations listed below, all members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, at its meeting held in London, United Kingdom, on January 17, 2014, adopted the following resolution:

to urge countries that have access to information laws to comply with their rules and principles;  undertake educational campaigns for the people to be  informed and aware of the extent and benefits of those laws;  suspend practices of restriction; and dismantle the culture of secrecy

to urge the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Barbados, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and Venezuela to sponsor legislative debates on access to information laws and encourage the adoption of regulations on this matter

to congratulate the judicial branch of the Paraguayan government over the ruling that sets a legal precedent on access to information

to urge the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to comply with the commitment to enact the 2003 Freedom of Information Law.

GAG LAW IN ECUADOR

WHEREAS

the government's media policy worsened with the enactment of the Communications Law (Ley Orgánica de Comunicación), which the government justified by arguing that media communication is a "public service" that must be regulated

WHEREAS

the law, in effect since June 25, 2013, includes a new series of "press offences", content restrictions, and control mechanisms that appear to prioritize the reputations of public officials over the right of the people to be informed and that seriously risk silencing government critics and encouraging self-censorship

WHEREAS

the law creates a legal definition for "national media houses", which are automatically subject to additional regulations; establishes the offense of “media lynching”; prohibits editors or media owners from censoring content, but makes them responsible for what is published; requires media to publish information of “public interest”; declares that full-time journalistic work is restricted to journalism and communication professionals; and calls for each media outlet to create its own code of ethics in line with a list of duties and values established by the law and obliges them to have an ombudsman

WHEREAS

the law creates the Council on Regulation and Development of Information and Communication of the Superintendence of Information to monitor compliance with the law, with the power to: regulate media ownership; control and interfere with content, including by direct censorship; and punish noncompliance with administrative and financial penalties.

WHEREAS

the law legalizes the accumulation of broadcast media in state hands by allotting 33% of all broadcast frequencies to state-owned media; further grants 34% of frequencies to community media, leaving just 33% for privately owned media, greatly diminishing the important role that privately owned media play in a democracy.

The organizations listed below, all members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, at its meeting held in London, United Kingdom, on January 17, 2014, adopted the following resolution:

to urge the government of Ecuador to respect and guarantee freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right of the people to be informed from various points of view; to reiterate to the government that it accept, as international press freedom groups have been requesting, a revision of and consultative opinion on the law by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in order to determine whether the Communications Law is consistent with international treaties and agreements concerning freedom of the press and expression.

to urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to conduct a review and study of Ecuador’s Organic Communication Law, in the light of international treaties on freedom of expression, freedom of the press and human rights, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, among other agreements.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

WHEREAS

the government of the United States limits, blocks or maintains a high degree of control over information that is circulated to the news media, leading to a chilling effect on individuals’ willingness to act as sources and negatively affecting the media’s ability to act as a watchdog, i.e., as an open, vigorous disseminator of information to the benefit of the public interest

WHEREAS

these restrictions and the resulting culture of secrecy affecting the flow of information obstruct media activity and scrutiny of the government’s actions, and amount to a serious interference with the practice of unfettered journalism and the freedom of the press

WHEREAS

the government – by seeking court rulings that neither the First Amendment nor the common law creates a privilege allowing a journalist to decline to identify the source of information allegedly disclosed to that journalist in violation of criminal law – effectively seeks to establish that no privilege protects the confidentiality of sources of reporters who cover national security matters

WHEREAS

those actions, when viewed in connection with others, appear to be part of an offensive against members of the news media aimed at restricting all versions of events and reports except the official ones

WHEREAS

a special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) – “The Obama Administration and the Press: Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America”, published in October 2013 – concluded that the government’s policies and actions against whistleblowers, in addition to its efforts to control official information, do not comport with the president’s promise to ensure that his administration is open and transparent

WHEREAS

President Barack Obama’s administration has prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all of his predecessors combined, and these prosecutions, many in cases involving information that was of public interest, have served to chill dissent and to curtail press freedom

WHEREAS

news media organizations have objected to limitations the White House has placed on news photographers’ access to events involving the president, and the administration’s practice of arguing that these events are of a private nature – while later distributing official photos and videos of those same events – reduces the climate of official transparency and openness while diminishing the editorial independence of the news media

WHEREAS

a coalition of American media and press organizations denounced the restrictions on access by photographers to presidential activities and opted not to publish official photos that the White House distributed in lieu of granting access to independent news media

WHEREAS

the U.S. Justice Department secretly seized records pertaining to approximately 20 telephone lines used by Associated Press (AP) journalists over a two-month period in 2012

WHEREAS

due to criticism raised by the government’s seizure of AP telephone records, and by subsequent revelations that the government searched the private communications of a Fox News reporter, the Justice Department strengthened its own internal guidelines for investigations involving news media and placed restrictions on the use of subpoenas and search warrants targeting journalists and their records, as well as information about those records held by third parties; however, those restrictions did not address the continued lack of protection with respect to the confidentiality of journalists’ news sources

WHEREAS

American news organizations and journalists have urged the federal government to update and improve its own rules in order to ensure greater protection of journalists, and they have called on Congress to approve a federal law creating a qualified privilege that would prevent journalists from being forced to disclose confidential sources or information

The organizations listed below, all members of the Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, at its meeting in London on Jan. 17, 2014 adopted the following resolution:

to urge the U.S. government to change polices that control or restrict the flow of information to the news media, or that result in excessive secrecy, and to urge the government to foster greater transparency and access to official activities

to ask the U.S. government to change policies that prevent news photographers from doing their work in an independent manner and to urge the government to refrain from merely handing out official photos to the news media

to support the position of the coalition of American media and press organizations in objection to limitations the White House has placed on news photographers’ access to events involving the president, and to support the decision by members of that coalition not to publish official photos distributed by the White House

to ask the government to consider recommendations set forth in the October 2013 CPJ report and to ensure that journalists will not be prosecuted for receiving confidential or classified information

to urge the government to maintain a greater degree of transparency into the activities of the National Security Agency and other government entities

to ask that the Justice Department fully comply with its own procedures on the use of subpoenas and search warrants targeting journalists and records pertaining to their work, with the aim of ensuring freedom of information and the right to keep the identities of news sources confidential

to urge the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives to pass a federal law granting a qualified privilege that would prevent journalists from being forced to disclose confidential sources or information.

Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust (CPU Media Trust)         

Inter American Press Association (IAPA)                                                            

International Association of Broadcasting (AIR-IAB)

International Press Institute (IPI)

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)

World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)         

    

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