MIAMI, Florida (June 15, 2018)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its support of Peruvian associations dedicated to surveillance of press freedom that rejected the "Gag Law," whose adoption yesterday in Congress prohibits government entities from placing official advertising in privately-owned news media.
With 70 votes in favor, 30 against and 7 abstentions Congress passed the law, which Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra Cornejo said he would reject because it would impede "the Executive Branch from complying with one of its principal constitutional functions: to communicate concerning the actions, measures, services that it provides to the population ... through any social news media, without prior authorization or censorship ...."
The IAPA backed the President's pronouncement and a joint press release of the Peruvian Press Council, the Press and Society Institute and the National Radio and Television Society that rejects the law because "it amounts to a mechanism of indirect censorship that hides, under the pretext of care of the use of public resources, the intent to silence the press and reduce its role as overseer."
Earlier the IAPA announced that it will be asking the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the government of Peru to request a consultative opinion of the Inter-American Court, in addition to supporting writs of unconstitutionality in the country.
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 publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida.
