Following is the full text of the resolution adopted at the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting, held in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 21-24:
Following is the full text of the resolution adopted at the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting, held in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 21-24:
WHEREAS
the Cuban government has recently unleashed a violent wave of repression including
searches of homes and individuals, confiscations and arrests to dismantle the
growing movement of independent journalists throughout the country
WHEREAS
Raúl Rivero, regional vice president of the Committee on Freedom of the
Press and Information is among the 20 people arrested
WHEREAS
among these actions was the seizure of the copies and all the equipment used
to produce the magazine De Cuba, an effort to open a window of free information
to Cuban readers, and that other projects to publish alternative bulletins and
magazines by independent journalists to break censorship and government control
are endangered
WHEREAS
the Cuban government has threatened to prosecute these acts of journalistic
independence under the so-called Law to Protect National Independence and the
Economy of Cuba which provides for sentences of up to 20 years in prison in
such cases
WHEREAS
reporter Bernardo Arévalo Padrón has been serving a six-year sentence
since 1997 because of his professional work, and journalists Carlos Alberto
Domínguez, Léster Téllez Castro and Carlos Brizuela have
been in jail since March awaiting trial, and other members of the independent
press are still harassed and fined to block their access to information sources
and places where they go to cover news
WHEREAS
the Cuban government denies independent professionals access to the work tools
they need to gather, produce and distribute their news, ideas and opinions both
inside and outside the island
WHEREAS
Principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that “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”
WHEREAS
Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that “Prior
censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of
their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles
to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of
journalists directly contradict freedom of the press”
THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to demand the immediate release of all jailed journalists, especially Raúl
Rivero, vice president of IAPA for Cuba, and the end of the current repressive
campaign against press freedom
to request the immediate intervention of democratic governments, professional groups and human rights organizations, and in general the entire international community, to demand that the Cuban government end its hostile acts against freedom of information
to demand the free and unrestricted practice of independent journalism in Cuba
and its representatives’ access to the tools necessary to disseminate
ideas, information and opinions inside and outside the country.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
