Ballantine Communications Inc. board member Elizabeth Ballantine attended the mid-year meeting of the Inter-American Press Association on March 7 in Panama City, Panama. Ballantine is a past-president of the organization.
At her left is Juan Carlos Varela, president of Panama. Varela had just signed the Chapultepec Declaration, a statement of intent to defend freedom of expression in all forms in the Western Hemisphere “from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.”
The declaration, first signed in 1994 at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, puts forth 10 principles. The first says: “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.” It has been signed by more than 50 heads of state from throughout the Americas.
