Cuba: Journalists roughed up
The chairman of the IAPAs Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, expressed condemnation of incidents in Cuba in which Reuters Television cameraman Alfredo Tadeschi and Reuters correspondent Andrew Cawthorne were beaten by police and state security agents as they sought to cover a disturbance outside the Mexican embassy in Havana. It was also learned that the Reuters Television uplink containing pictures of the incident was initially blocked.
According to reports from other media sources, the police also roughed up other foreign correspondents arriving on the scene after a group of Cubans crashed a bus through the embassy gates in an apparent bid to seek asylum.
Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, magazine Ahora, declared that "although we are aware of the Cuban governments way of restricting information, we remind him that the exercise of free speech and press freedom is not the result of a grant of the authorities but an inalienable right of the people."
Colombia: Safeguards for unrestricted newsgathering sought
The IAPA also addresses the war in Colombia between the Army and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla movement. The hemisphere free-press organization noted that in war zones journalists have not only been victims but the safeguards they need to carry out their work and move about freely have been curtailed.
In this regard, Molina stressed how important is the role of the press and the fact that it must be safeguarded because "it is in confused wartime situations that public needs to be fully and duly informed. We are closely watching what is happening in Colombia and we ask the government for guarantees to enable journalists to continue to do their job under the new circumstances in the country, particularly in the region where the guerrillas used to operate."
Molina added that "the result of unrestricted news coverage, unfettered by governments, is that it in the end it helps to form public opinion."
Argentina: Call for provincial government to investigate threats
On another matter, the IAPA called on the government of the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero, where a climate of conflict has led to a number of complaints about news coverage, to determine the origin of death threats issued to the family of the local correspondent of the Buenos Aires daily Clarín, Julio Rodríguez, which he links to his investigation into allegations of corruption in the local administration.
Calling for the official probe into the death threats,
Molina said those responsible must be brought to justice in order to ensure
that they are not carried out.
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