More than 250 delegates participated in the Summit, organized on June 20-22, in Washington, D.C., by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) through its Chapultepec Project, whose main objective was to find common ground and establish a dialogue between the two institutions, which are vital in preserving the state of law.
The idea behind the Summit emerged after the creation of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which contains ten fundamental principles on freedom of expression that should govern a democratic society. The Declaration was written and adopted in March 1994, in Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, where over a hundred representatives of the press, human rights organizations, politicians, judicial system, cultural organizations, and private citizens gathered.
IAPA President Robert Cox described the Washington Summit as an historic milestone not only for having for the first time brought together at one venue 44 Supreme Court justices and dozens of journalists from a wide range of countries in the Americas, but because both groups had the opportunity to step back from their duties and obligations and discuss rights and guarantees.
I believe whole-heartedly said Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina that this meeting has allowed judges and journalists to stop looking at each other from the corners of their eyes and to try to find a way to understand the problems and necessary safeguards that are required to live in complete freedom and prosperity.
The key issues of the Summit were found in the different legal, judicial and journalistic opinions, on the decriminalization of libel and slander, the discussion on actual malice, the burden of proof element, and the right to honor and privacy. Also, issues such as access to judicial and official information, and impunity against crimes against journalists were discussed, among others.
The meeting was not intended to produce specific conclusions, but rather to produce an open dialogue, serving as a venue for discussion, analysis, and understanding the problems that judges and journalists face when covering and publishing information, especially when it affects third parties.
During the Summits conclusions, Alejandro Miró Quesada, Chairman
of the IAPA Chapultepec Committee, expressed that the meeting has allowed
us to agree that judicial independence and respect for freedom of the press
are indispensably allied to increase the benefits of democracy.
Minutes after the mock trial during which judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys
reenacted a trail illustrating the problems that reporters confront when covering
news in Latin America, Miró Quesada, publisher of El Comercio, Lima,
Peru, announced that the Summit launches a new phase in the Chapultepec Project
during which national forums will be organized similar to the one held in Washington.
The Declaration of Chapultepec, whose first principle states, no people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press, has already been signed by leaders of 27 countries and by thousands of private citizens from throughout the Western Hemisphere. This document was used as the benchmark for drafting the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States on March 2001.
The speech presented by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, during the Summits inauguration, was taped for broadcast on C-SPAN television station and set the appropriate tone for the remaining discussion sessions by referring to judicial independence and the role of the media.
The judicial branch and the press, although different entities share the same objectives, they are twin institutions, said Breyer, when describing the press as linked to the judicial system, since we need journalists to convince the people of the need for our independence.
Likewise, on the evening before, the Dean of the Washington College of Law at American University, Claudio Grossman, said that the judicial branch and the press are like two wings of the same bird whose harmonious movement leads to better flight, and, following the metaphor, a better democracy: Grossman also received the Chapultepec Grand Prize which is given to individuals or organizations that promote the Declaration of Chapultepec.
This meeting, organized by the IAPA and sponsored by the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, was attended by justices from the Supreme Courts of the following countries: Argentina, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, and Uruguay. Only justices from Brazil and Venezuela could not attend.
At the Summits closing, and validating the main concepts behind justice
and the press, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica, Luis Paulino
Mora, said that we justices leave this meeting satisfied; we understand
that there are other types of problems on the other side of the bench.
Mora finished by stressing the common mission that the justices
have to guarantee human rights and that journalists have to protect
human rights, he observed with the unanimous sentiment of the
participants that this is an open dialogue and one that should
continue.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
