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CONCLUSIONS
The murder of a single journalist in the Americas in the course
of a year is one killing too many. Since the last IAPA General Assembly
in Uruguay in 1998, seven more journalists were killed in the line
of duty in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. That number, while still
unacceptable, is fewer than were killed the previous year. In total,
killers acting with impunity murdered more than 200 journalists
throughout the Americas in the last decade. Over the course of the
last year, the Inter American Press Association has intensified
its efforts to raise public awareness of these unpunished crimes
and to slow the pace of the killings. This IAPA campaign against
crimes of impunity is beginning to yield results. Acts of violence
against journalists in the Americas have diminished, and more and
more governments in the region are responding to our initiatives.
Yet even as the assassinations of working journalists appear to
be dwindling, a more subtle and spreading attack on the press is
underway. While many might believe the press now operates without
limits in a climate of democracy throughout the Americas, the truth
is that the situation is far more complex. Even in democratic nations,
politicians uneasy with a free and independent press are using every
means at their disposal to silence or pressure their critics and
limit the watchdog role of the media.
In virtually very nation in the Americas, legal threats and challenges
bedevil all journalists. Legal maneuvers against the press are now
unfolding in legislative bodies and courtrooms throughout the hemisphere.
Intimidating libel suits are being filed in alarming numbers, some
with no greater pretext than a public official who claims insult
or embarrassment as a result of published accounts which prove to
be factual. The libel claims often carry the prospect of prison
terms as well as crippling financial penalties that could overwhelm
individual owners and publishers.
Compliant legislative bodies are debating changes in local laws
designed to limit freedom of speech and expression and press independence.
These efforts also are on the rise. The work of the Constituent
Assembly in Venezuela, in particular, threatens the status of the
press. The IAPA continues to be concerned about ongoing situations
in Peru, and efforts in Paraguay to impose new limits on the national
press.
These concerted efforts to muzzle an independent, vigorous press
are more insidious than outright killings because it is easy for
politicians and the military to confuse the public and hide behind
judicial proceedings and legislative maneuvers while pursuing their
real aims. Publishers and owners everywhere, from Argentina and
Uruguay to Peru and Colombia, face the specter of crippling libel
convictions handed down by hostile judges. The mere filing of a
case before a judge hostile to the media can be an effective form
of intimidation even if the case is not supported by the facts.
In some cases, governments are moving to use a willing judiciary
to threaten the outright seizure of media properties.
In sum, vigilance and a proactive strategy emerged as the strongest
options open to the nearly 500 delegates as they met for the 55th
time and the final time in this century in Houston, Texas.
The publication by the IAPA of "Impunity No More," focuses
new attention on the violence against journalists in the Americas,
and a record of official indifference on the part of governments
responsible for solving the crimes. In the past, IAPA delegations
often encountered that indifference as they sought to investigate
the unsolved murder of journalists. Now, Rapid Response Teams will
travel to the country immediately after a crime is committed in
order to launch timely and independent parallel investigation, and
to pressure authorities to prosecute responsible parties.
Across the hemisphere, serious challenges to press freedom abound.
Some, like official press repression in Cuba, are familiar. Those
who believed the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998 would
usher in government liberalization of Cuban press policies instead
have seen the regime harden its position. The government prevented
Raul Rivero from traveling to New York in August to accept the prestigious
Maria Moors Cabot Award at Columbia University. IAPA members listened
to Rivero in a telephone presentation he made from Havana. Several
independent journalists remain jaile. Others have fled the country.
Independent journalists working in Cuba are an endangered species.
Access to Cuba for the U.S. press remains restricted. Individual
newspapers are singled out for exclusion.
Other challenges confronting journalists are disturbingly new. In
Venezuela, the consolidation of power and institutional upheaval
continues under the direction of former military officer, President
Hugo Chavez. While Chavez himself assured an IAPA delegation in
Washington, D.C. that he was committed to press freedoms, his rhetoric
might be contradicted by events on the ground, especially if Venezuela
experiences further political change and turmoil.
A newly elected Constituent Assembly has proposed government regulation
of the press, and limitation to citizens' right of freedom of expression,
Persistent efforts to establish colegios, government-sanctioned,
mandatory oversight entities, move from one nation to the next.
Even as delegates have defeated such a measure in, say, Costa Rica,
a new front in the battle has opened in neighboring Nicaragua, where
pro-Sandinista journalists seek to establish a colegio.
Conversation and debate took place during the country-by-country
reports, notably about Cuba, Peru and Paraguay. Such robust exchanges
are a hallmark of IAPA meetings.
Steady progress was made enshrining the Declaration of Chapultepec
as a truly historic landmark in the establishment of a free press
in America. Ecuadoran President Jamil Mahuad signed the declaration,
bringing the number of signatory nations to more than 20. Chapultepec
Forums held at several regional locations in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador
and Argentina, were a success.
Above all, the mission of the IAPA will remain the preservation
of freedom of the press in the hemisphere.
 questions
or comments? e-mail us
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
All rights reserved.
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