The visit will be held within the framework of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, a document setting out 10 principles for free speech and press freedom to exist in a democracy.
The visit will be held within the framework of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, a document setting out 10 principles for free speech and press freedom to exist in a democracy.
The delegation will meet on Monday with El Salvador Supreme Court Chief Justice Agustín García Calderón, his fellow Supreme Court justices and other Salvadorians judges. Among topics to be discussed in the November 11 roundtables are relations between judges and the press, the importance of strengthening communication between the courts and news media, and the decriminalization of libel.
In addition to García Gamboa, editor-in-chief of Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancún, Mexico, the IAPA mission will be made up of Freedom of the Press and Information Committee Chairman Rafael Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, news magazine Ahora, Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz, Press Freedom Coordinator Ricardo Trotti, Chapultepec Project Lawyer Jairo Lano and Project Manager Sean Casey, and Argentine constitutionalist lawyer Gregorio Badeni.
On Tuesday, the delegation plans a day-long series of activities in conjunction with the Costa Rican Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Luis Paulino Mora Mora. Among the issues to be discussed by the justices and local journalists are access to court records and criminal libel laws.
The discussions in Costa Rica will be conducted by the recently-appointed chairman of the IAPA Chapultepec Committee, Eduardo Ulibarri, editor of La Nación, San José, Costa Rica.
In a parallel mission to Costa Rica, the IAPA is due to meet with that country’s foreign minister, Roberto Tovar, to discuss press freedom and free speech issues within the framework of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society sponsored by the United Nations, whose preparatory meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean is scheduled to be held in the Dominican Republic next January.
The dialogue being promoted by the IAPA between the press and the judiciary in El Salvador and Costa Rica is part of a series of national conferences that the hemisphere organization plans to hold over the next three years. The first one was held in Washington, DC, in June and had the participation of Supreme Court chief justices from throughout the Americas. There followed national meetings in Argentina in late September and Peru in October. Such national forums are planned for Chile and Brazil next year.
For more information, visit the IAPA Web site, www.sipiapa.org
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