Miami (March 12, 2003) – Attacks against independent journalists in Cuba
and tactics used by the Venezuelan government to suppress the media in that country
will be the topics of special reports on freedom of the press the Inter American
Press Association will present during its Midyear Meeting in San Salvador on March
21-24.
The traditional country-by-country reports in which the IAPA examines violations
to press freedom will be presented on Saturday, March 22. These will include
the report on Cuba that focuses on the latest attacks against journalists and
also a new magazine by the independent journalists that seeks to open a window
for freedom of expression in the over 40-year old dictatorship. The IAPA also
will reassert pressure on the Cuban government to release journalist Bernardo
Arévalo Padrón, sentenced in November 1997 to six years in jail
for insulting President Fidel Castro and Vice President Carlos Lage.
Meanwhile, the report on Venezuela, besides listing the numerous attacks against
journalists and the media in the last six months, will analyze more closely
administrative measures against television stations and the Law on Content that,
among other things, attempts to legalize the intervention of government officials
in the content of programming of private radio and television stations, forces
journalists to reveal their sources, and could suspend the concession of licenses
to operate electronic media.
Legal action against journalists, economic pressure through special taxes,
and discrimination in the allocation of government advertising against the media,
will be issues discussed in the meeting during which, besides Cuba and Venezuela,
other countries, such as Canada, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, and the United States,
will have special time to discuss the risks to freedom of the press that journalists
constantly confront.
The murder of journalists and the IAPA’s struggle to end impunity, as
well as the fostering of a better understanding between judges and journalists
at an international level through the Chapultepec Project, will be other topics
covered in the meeting that more than 250 journalists and editors are expected
to attend.
