The year 2013 was a hard one for all of us in the press. However, we welcome 2014, a year that marks the 20th anniversary of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which since its adoption in Mexico in March 1994, has been instrumental in identifying attacks upon press freedom and promoting freedom of expression across the Americas.
In this spirit, commemorating the Declaration of Chapultepec will form an important part of the next year’s General Assembly and Midyear Meeting of the Inter American Press Association. As an organization, we will continue making awareness of the value of freedom of expression in democracy, whether it be inviting leaders and members of the public of each community to embrace it or educating them on the Chapultepec Declaration’s principles at seminars and conferences.
We will carry out these activities in order to leave behind 2013, which turned out to be deeply harmful to freedom of the press and journalism.
The problems will remain a memory that characterized the year that is coming to an end. Violence continues to be the principal scourge surrounding our problems, with 17 journalists murdered in Latin America. We will continue to urge governments to condemn and administer justice against all forms of aggression. While at the same time, we support the action plan drawn up by the United Nations to provide greater safety and protection for journalists throughout the world and to fight against the impunity with which journalists are too often attacked.
We regret that laws were enacted against media activity, with Ecuador being the country where the situation escalated to extremes. The Organic Communication Law passed there under the justification that information is a public service, makes gagging official and creates a series of press offenses that grant privileges to the authorities over members of the public. This legislation sets up new state bodies and makes official censorship legitimate, encouraging self-censorship.
In reality, no country was exempt from authoritarian action by those in government. In Venezuela, they created a state body with the objective of censoring public information. At the same time, the government stepped up actions against newspapers through financial strangulation consisting of depriving them of the ability to acquire foreign currency to purchase their production supplies.
In the United States, the government’s secret confiscation of the files of 21 telephone lines of Associated Press reporters, was a clear violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. At the same time, the government is continuing to obstruct and maintain greater control over information, which has given rise to recurring criticism over its lack of transparency.
Along with various other press organizations, we have asked the federal government, including Congress, to work on the enactment of a federal law that protects news sources.
In Cuba, the authorities continue to maintain a monopoly of information and propaganda. At our IAPA’s General Assembly held in Denver in October, we heard the complaints of our regional vice chair, Yoani Sánchez, who reported that attacks upon and repression of independent journalists have worsened.
All these developments, which are a brief summary of what has occurred in 2013, reflect the fact that the lack of access to public information continues to be a serious problem in the Americas, reducing transparency and accountability, essential elements to democracy. This is why, on repeated occasions, we insist on our call for compliance with the establishment of access laws, or that they be enacted, where needed, as in the cases of Argentina, Barbados, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and Venezuela.
In our constant intent not only to defend but to promote press freedom, we have dedicated a great deal of effort to the professionalization of media and journalists through seminars, conferences and webinars and by granting them scholarships and awards.
We have maintained fruitful relations with press associations throughout the Americas, and in recent visits to Brazil and Colombia, we have directly involved our members in the sustainable progress of our institution.
I take this opportunity to thank each one of our members and all journalists for their daily efforts on behalf of the public’s right to information. A well and freely informed public is a pillar of a solid democracy.
Elizabeth Ballantine is president of the Inter American Press Association, a nonprofit organization devoted to defending freedom of speech and freedom of the press throughout the Americas. She is also a member of the board of directors of Ballantine Communications, Inc., the parent company of The Durango Herald.
