WHEREAS there has increased harassment and repression of journalists, bloggers, photographers, video makers, cyber journalists, those who influence opinion and also against digital platforms and press associations and human rights groups
WHEREAS the forms of repression include arrests, partial detentions, threats of imprisonment, police summonses, firing of government employees, interrogations, confiscation of work equipment, spying, forcible entries, prohibition of leaving the country, and discrediting campaigns
WHEREAS the attacks upon independent journalists are made in a climate of total lack of legal defense
WHEREAS there are numerous impediments to free speech and to the work of the press in articles of the Constitution, Penal Code, Law 88, Associations Law, Foreign Investment Law, school regulations of the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, among other laws and state dispositions
WHEREAS the Declaration of Chapultepec states that "No people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people" and establishes that "the membership of journalists in guilds, their affiliation to professional and trade associations and the affiliation of the media with business groups must be strictly voluntary".
THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES
to reiterate to the Presidents and Heads of State of the Americas, in accordance with what is expressed in the document "An historic obligation," that they commit themselves to working together so that the citizens of Cuba can enjoy democracy and the essential freedoms that their government denies them
to condemn the harassment, repressions, aggressions and impediments that are suffered by the independent press of Cuba through various juridical, legal and police mechanisms
to express respect for and solidarity with the journalists and all the communicators who inform in an independent manner through different forms of expression, despite the threats and repression that continue.
