The Declaration of Chapultepec, adopted during a hemisphere conference in Mexico in 1994, contains 10 fundamental principles necessary for a free press to fulfill its essential role in a democracy, and has been endorsed by the majority of the hemispheres’ leaders.
President Uribe met with the IAPA delegation led by Alberto Ibargüen, chairman of The Miami Herald Publishing Company and chairman of the IAPA’s Impunity Committee, during a special mission the hemisphere organization organized in Bogota last week to promote press freedom and, in particular, to push forward investigations on crimes against journalists so that they do not go unpunished.
Minutes before, President Uribe announced that “there will be no laws that restrict freedom of the press” during his term in office. He also expressed his support to protect journalists and justice in order to end impunity.
The Colombian leader mentioned that the press plays an essential role in a democracy and referred to the first principle of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which states, “No people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant; it is an inalienable right of the people.”
Besides Ibargüen, the delegation was made up of IAPA’s First Vice President, Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing Company of Chicago; Phil Bennett, international editor of The Washington Post; Gonzalo Marroquín, director of Prensa Libre in Guatemala; Enrique Santos, co-director of El Tiempo in Colombia, and Ricardo Trotti, IAPA’s Press Freedom Coordinator.
Countries that have endorsed the Declaration of Chapultepec are: Antigua &
Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala,
Honduras, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts
& Nevis, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago,
United States, and Uruguay. Former President of Colombia, Ernesto Samper, signed
on September 13, 1994.
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