MIAMI, Florida (May 1, 2015)—The president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, issued the following message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day to be celebrated on May 3.
Despite all the obstacles facing the people for expressing their opinions and the atrocities committed against journalists and news media, this time we have reasons to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, because there is a certain air of hope for the Americas.
Our optimism is based on the significant step that the governments of Cuba and the United States have taken to reestablish diplomatic relations. We believe that the commitment made by Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama not only transcends these two countries creating a new political climate in our hemisphere, but gives us the hope that there will be changes and fundamental benefits for the peoples of the Americas.
The path is not an easy one, but we are confident that both governments will have the political will to reach agreements that prioritize human rights and freedom of expression.
Thus it is fundamental that no one be excluded or prosecuted for speaking, offering an opinion or openly and freely criticizing, and that the creation of diverse and plural news media be fostered.
In the spirit of collaborating in this new climate of reconciliation and of greater freedoms that is looming we have asked President Castro to allow an IAPA delegation to visit his country.
We are also confident that other significant conflicts that have bloodied Latin America and resounded painfully against press freedom will be brought to an end, in particular through the peace process headed by Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos.
In this context we cannot fail to note that Pope Francis will be visiting these three countries this year, an action that consolidates the new climate of peace and hope that he has helped to encourage, as the three governments have acknowledged.
While these changes represent big advances for the development of our hemisphere we cannot overlook the fact that there are governments that have gone back in time, crushing freedom of expression and of the press. The cases of most concern are those of Venezuela and Ecuador, where the governments have created efficient methods of censorship that conspire against the democratic values that they claim to uphold.
Nor can we ignore that crimes against journalists and attacks on media continue to plunge freedom of expression in our hemisphere into mourning. We are continuing to call for justice, as we did in Colombia to President Santos, concerning such cases as those of Guillermo Cano, Nelson Carvajal and Orlando Sierra or the unpunished murder in México of Héctor Félix Miranda, among so many others; convinced that without effective justice being done impunity will continue fomenting violence and harming our democratic system.
In this spirit of hope for more freedom and justice we had this year an active participation during the 7th Summit of the Americas held in Panama. There we were emphatic in asking the international community, governments and citizens together, that no one should remain silent in the face of the violence against freedom of expression and of the press.
We all, without distinction, have the responsibility to safeguard these values and denounce any attack upon them, on the understanding that, as stated in our Declaration of Chapultepec, “there are no people or societies that are free without freedom of expression and of the press”.
World Press Freedom Day which is celebrated on May 3 was established in commemoration of the Windhoek Declaration, a document that contains principles on the defense of press freedom, drawn up in 1991 during a meeting of African journalists inspired by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO).
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.
