The "Emergency Forum in Venezuela,” will take place on April 29, 2003, as part of the IAPA’s Chapultepec Project aimed at promoting and defending freedom of the press in the Americas.
The "Emergency Forum in Venezuela,” will take place on April 29, 2003, as part of the IAPA’s Chapultepec Project aimed at promoting and defending freedom of the press in the Americas.
The forum will be led by IAPA President, Andrés García, director of Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and will include presentations by legal experts, such as Venezuelan attorneys Asdrúbal Aguiar and Pedro Nikken. Constitutional lawyer Gregorio Badeni from Argentina will examine aspects of pending legislation that affect the media.
Former IAPA Presidents, Raúl Kraiselburd, director of El Día, La Plata, Argentina and Edward Seaton, publisher of The Manhattan Mercury, Manhattan, Kansas, both experienced in issues concerning press freedom, will examine, among other points, the use of economic measures and violence as pressure tactics to weaken the independence and ability of journalists to freely exercise their profession.
In a recent statement on the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, known as the Law on Content, President García warned “this law contains harmful elements that involve total censorship by allowing the State to claim itself as the owner of information that the media can disseminate. This would mean the legalization of authoritarianism.”
The IAPA delegation, also comprised of Ricardo Trotti, Freedom of the Press
Director, and Sean Casey, Chapultepec Project administrator, will be in Caracas
from April 28-30. Besides meetings with journalists and newspaper directors
in the capital, they will travel to the cities of Maracay and Guarenas, to talk
with the media in these municipalities in order to measure risks to freedom
of the press in the interior of the country.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
