MIAMI, Florida (December 18, 2018)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today requested the Organization of American States (OAS) to analyze and take the necessary steps to bring about compliance in Nicaragua with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, considering that the situation in the Central American country requires forceful actions.
In a communiqué sent to OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro IAPA President María Elvira Domínguez of Colombian newspaper El Pais and the chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Roberto Rock of Mexican news portal La Silla Rota, expressed "their extreme concern at and condemnation of the harassment by the Nicaraguan regime against freedom of expression and of the press."
The IAPA officers asked the OAS that "in the face of the continual violation, the lack of guarantees for respect of human rights and the alteration of the constitutional order in Nicaragua" it carry out "an in-depth analysis of the necessary measures that should be adopted for compliance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, with the understanding that 'representative democracy is essential for the stability, peace and development of the region,' it being one of its proposals the promotion and consolidation of that representative democracy."
The IAPA declared that "the recent actions of the regime's control policy impels us to make a forceful call upon the OAS to reaffirm respect in Nicaragua for essential liberties, whose exercise has been violated abusively by the political power." The organization reminded the OAS that its Permanent Council approved resolutions on Nicaragua on July 18 and September 12 in which the government was urged "to cease the acts of violence and violations of human rights and to facilitate national dialogue in order to put an end to the crisis."
The missive made reference to the assault on the offices of Confidencial and other news media, the confiscation of their documents and journalistic equipment, the attacks on their journalists, and the withdrawal of legal staff from nine social and human rights organizations, actions that occurred in recent days among other violations reported since April this year.
The IAPA also said that it asked the Inter-American Human Rights Commission for a speeding up of the process to grant precautionary measures to journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro of Confidencial, as well as those recently adopted in favor of Miguel Mora and other journalists of the Nicaraguan television channel 100% Noticias.
The IAPA http://www.sipiapa.org 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.
