Miami (November 19, 2024) – A delegation from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) will visit Panama this week for meetings with President José Raúl Mulino and other local authorities to discuss press freedom related issues.
The IAPA mission, led by its president José Roberto Dutriz, president and CEO of La Prensa Gráfica in El Salvador, will be in the country from November 20 to 22. Mulino, who took office on July 1, will sign the Declarations of Chapultepec and Salta II.
Dutriz will be accompanied in Panama by former IAPA presidents Roberto Rock from Mexico's digital platform La Silla Rota, and Michael Greenspon from The New York Times in the United States. Also, the chair of the Executive Committee, Gabriela Vivanco from Ecuador's La Hora newspaper, and the IAPA Executive Director Carlos Lauría.
The Declaration of Chapultepec, adopted in 1994, summarizes in 10 principles the concept of consolidating the enforcement of public freedoms and human rights, based on the understanding that "the driving force and starting point of basic human rights" is freedom of expression.
The Declaration of Salta II is an updated version of the original 2018 text, adapted to the challenges faced by press freedom in the new digital environment. This new version was approved at the IAPA General Assembly in Córdoba, Argentina, last October. Mulino is the first president in the region to sign the Declaration Salta II.
In addition to Mulino, the presidents of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo; Paraguay, Santiago Peña, and Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, also signed the Declaration of Chapultepec this year.
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
