Miami (March 11, 2014)—After 20 years the Declaration of Chapultepec “continues as valid as ever,” according to officers of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), who claim its relevance in a continent still facing violations of freedom of the press and of expression.
On reaching today a new anniversary since its was created on March 11, 1994 at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico the IAPA announced that it is now starting to hold a series of activities to commemorate it. The first of these will be in Barbados April 4-7, in which there will be discussion of its relevance as a document to preserve, promote and defend press freedom. Other acts are planned for during the General Assembly that the organization will hold in Santiago, Chile, in October, as well as regional meetings and webinars that will focus on application of its principles, essential for the public’s right to information and the strengthening of democracies.
In its preamble the Declaration, drafted by former democratic presidents, Nobel Prize winners, leaders and journalists, declares that “Without freedom there can be no true order, stability and justice. And without freedom of expression there can be no freedom.”
After recalling “those visionaries who made this document and its usefulness possible” IAPA President Elizabeth Ballantine, The Durango Herald, Durango, Colorado, said that “the relevance of the Declaration lies in the fact that it commits us as journalists, but especially as citizens, to defend and promote freedom of the press and freedom of expression as priorities to achieve the common good.”
The Declaration of Chapultepec (http://www.sipiapa.org/chapultepec3/about-the-document) contains 10 fundamental principles necessary for a free press to comply with its essential role in a democracy. It was approved during the Hemisphere Conference on Freedom of Expression on Mach 11, 1994 in Mexico City and since then has been adopted by heads of state, leaders, academics, students and citizens of the Americas.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Chapultepec Committee, José Roberto Dutriz, La Prensa Gráfica, San Salvador, El Salvador, added, “The Declaration not only commits to permanently seeking the truth, demanding freedom and tolerance, but also commits us to respect standards and ethical criteria in communication.”
And the chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, Búsqueda, Montevideo, Uruguay, stressed that “the Declaration has become an essential yardstick to measure the levels of freedom and democracy that countries enjoy, helping to create jurisprudence to guarantee individual rights and freedoms.”
In this regard Paolillo and Dutriz recalled that in 2001 the Declaration of Chapultepec served as the basis for the drafting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression.
The IAPA Chapultepec Program has the current financial support of the James McClatchy Fund, of the San Francisco Foundation, California. Since its inception in 1994 and for more than a decade that Program had the financial support of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation of Illinois.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
