Danilo Arbilla, president of the Inter American Press Association
Danilo Arbilla, president of the Inter American Press Association
In the traditional presidential year-end message, Arbilla highlights the various missions that the organization sent to Peru in recent years and the protests it has made to former President Alberto Fujimori and his right-hand aide Vladimiro Montesinos at the attacks on freedom of the press in their country. He points out that 19 journalists were murdered in the Americas during the year and mentions that the Association carried out 32 missions throughout the hemisphere with the aim of promoting and defending press freedom. Arbilla also refers to the IAPAs new headquarters, the Jules Dubois Building, inaugurated in July, which gives added strength to the training that the Press Institute provides to media professionals and he expresses optimism about the Associations new project, "Journalists At Risk," and the Inter-American Declaration of Freedom of Expression, sponsored by the Organization of American States, which he describes as two new weapons in the fight for free speech and press freedom.
MIAMI, Florida (Dec. 29)-It is not entirely appropriate to issue a message of optimism when in the course of a year 19 journalists have been murdered, when the press continues under attack from governments that unlawfully abuse their power and go so far as to use public resources to reward or punish the press and individual journalists, when laws remain on the books, or new ones are planned, that seek to curtail freedom of expression, or when in many countries the great threat to that freedom comes from nothing less than the judiciary, which should be the guarantor of our rights and not a disguised means to trample them.
There are good reasons, however, to make us optimistic and keep alive the hope that our struggle will be successful and the cause of freedom that we defend will triumph in the end. It is true that journalists continue to be murdered, but it is also a fact that since the IAPA held the Hemisphere Conference on Unpunished Crimes Against Journalists in July 1997, things have moved forward and much has been accomplished, and today there is an awareness that the murder of journalists goes beyond mere homicide and is in fact a crime against society at large, because it curtails freedom of expression and the right to information. This work of the IAPA and of many other organizations committed to freedom of the press and human rights has not been in vain in this area. And neither has it in regard to other threats, such as the case of insult laws or restriction of access to public records.
The restoration of democracy in Peru with the resignation of Alberto Fujimori and the unmasking of his former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos is surely something that should make us all rejoice and fill us with optimism for the future and at the same time be a strong argument not to doubt that in the end justice will be done. The IAPA is especially delighted by what has happened in Peru and sees itself as a pioneer, being one of those who played a leading role in bringing it about, given that already in April 1997 in letters - on two occasions - to President Fujimori and various other authorities in Peru it called for an end to actions being taken against journalists and the news media and for an investigation into them, saying that among those responsible was the Intelligence Service headed by Montesinos. In May of that same year, the IAPA warned Fujimori of the threat inherent in a communiqué issued by the Peruvian Armed Forces attacking Baruch Ivcher Bronstein. Unfortunately, the IAPA was right. Once again, in June, the IAPA protested and one month later it sent a mission to Peru that gathered information from all kinds of sources and took up the matter with the authorities, beginning with Fujimori himself, later reiterating its protests at the violations of press freedom in Peru. The IAPA kept up its action in that country and sent two more missions, one of them in August this year - shortly before the changes that we celebrate today. The IAPA can certainly be proud of its contribution to the outcome.
But in addition to its unceasing and timely denunciation of restrictions to press freedom the IAPA is also very proud of the fact that it holds seminars to enhance and update the skills of journalists and news media, the support it has given to the Inter-American Declaration of Freedom of Expression, the inauguration of a new headquarters and having put on the table a series of projects that will guide the future work of the hemisphere organization.
On becoming IAPA president in Santiago, Chile, in October, I made a pledge to continue supporting and leading all the projects that my predecessors had launched and that the Association is taking forward today and have raised its profile in the international arena. Such programs as the promotion of the Declaration of Chapultepec, Unpunished Crimes Against Journalists, the education and training of media professionals through the Press Institute, and scholarships can rely on my full support.
As a corollary, from October 1999 to October 2000 the Association carried out 32 missions and/or activities related to press freedom. In the period we visited Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. The Press Institute held 19 high-level seminars on innovative topics that had a total participation of some 870 people representing virtually every country in the hemisphere.
But all this imperative and diligent work, as we said earlier, is not enough to overcome the challenges that still persist and can be seen in assaults, murders, a proliferation of legislative bills seeking to curtail press freedom, and other harmful kinds of coercion that made us deploy our best efforts in order to lift the veil of uncertainty that shrouds freedom of the press in our countries.
This year, the enemies of democracy took the lives of 19 journalists. Sadly, murder continues to be a resort in the backward-looking minds of those who fail to understand that the job of reporting will go on regardless. But the investigations of such crimes by the efficient Rapid Response Unit have come up with valuable conclusions that will now enable us to provide useful information to warn the press at large of the dangers. In this regard, we will pursue a program for the protection and support of journalists, "Journalists At Risk," so we do not have to wait for tragic news and then act.
The need for governments to provide guarantees to ensure peoples full and free access to public information, the repeal of insult laws, and making alleged offenses committed by the press subject to civil rather than criminal proceedings will be among the objectives we plan to achieve through the Chapultepec program.
The National Forums have provided a major stage for promoting the Declaration of Chapultepec with the aim of having local legislation conform to the Declarations principles, designed to maintain peoples well-being and freedom. In the coming year, Forums will be held in a number of countries, beginning with Peru in February.
The Inter-American Declaration of Freedom of Expression sponsored by the Organization of American States in the view of the IAPA is an outstanding achievement, in that it radiates its precepts to the governments and people of the Western Hemisphere and provides guidelines on freedom of expression and how to make it universal. The IAPA intends to go hand-in-hand with the Declaration so that its principles be taken up by every human being in the Americas.
In this respect, this July we held a Hemisphere Conference in Miami whose central theme was the Inter-American Declaration. On that occasion we also inaugurated our new headquarters, the Jules Dubois Building, which already has been dubbed "The Press Center of the Americas." The Declaration, already approved and adopted by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, is now due to be submitted to the inter-American community at a meeting in Washington and then will become the main theme of our upcoming Midyear Meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, in March.
There is still much work to be done that I would like to undertake during my term as president. On behalf of the Inter American Press Association I remain unswerving in my commitment to continue denouncing injustices and unlawful actions and to go on advocating freedom of the press as a pillar of democracy. There are major challenges for us in the year 2001, which a stronger, prestigious, respected and recognized Association will know how to face in order to march together toward full freedom of expression.
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