MIAMI, Florida (July 30, 2015)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in a hearing of the U.S. Congress’s House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere said that the increase in direct and indirect censorship and physical attacks on journalists have caused deterioration in freedom of the press and of expression in the region.
The Subcommittee yesterday held a public hearing titled “Threats to Press Freedom in the Americas” in which Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, presented an oral report http://bit.ly/1I5el3X.
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, spoke of the erosion of fundamental rights noted in several countries of the Americas where their government leaders, elected democratically, are behaving like “legal dictators” who resort to various methods within their reach to destroy all opposition and critical media.
The testimony of the IAPA – which also sent a detailed report with recommendations to the Subcommittee, http://bit.ly/1IsZywW, centered on Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, countries where freedom of expression and of the press continue to be reduced.
Among the IAPA recommendations was a request to the United States government to urge its counterparts in the Americas to adjust to the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which establishes that freedom of expression and of the press and the people’s right to information are essential for democratic life and the common good.
The IAPA also reiterated to the U.S. government that in the diplomatic talks with its Cuban counterpart it should give relevance to the issues of free speech and press freedom, there being included the request for the release from prison of independent journalists José Antonio Torres, Ángel Santiesteban and Yoennis de Jesús Guerra.
During the special hearing, http://bit.ly/1VQ1jhY, on the principle violations of press freedom in the Americas also speaking were Carlos Ponce of Freedom House, Carlos Lauría of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, CPJ, Nicolás Pérez Lapentti of Ecuador’s El Universo and Alfredo Corchado of The Dallas Morning News.
The IAPA delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C., also comprised the organization’s executive director, Ricardo Trotti.
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.
