Miami (May 13, 2003) The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today
announced it is to hold a conference on freedom of the press in Chile with the
participation of local judges and journalists to look at relations between the
press and the judiciary. Attending the conference will be Chilean Supreme Court
justices, including Chief Justice Mario Garrido Montt.
The objective of the Judicial Conference on Press Freedom, to be held this
Thursday (May 15) at the Carrera Hotel in downtown Santiago, is to create a
forum for judges and journalists to get to know and understand each other better.
Topics to be discussed include issues concerning freedom of the press, interaction
between judges and reporters, and how to strengthen democracy. Taking part will
be Supreme Court justices, judges from appeals from Arica in the north of Chile
to Punta Arenas in the south, as well as editors, publishers, columnists, reporters
and students.
IAPA President Andrés García, of Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancún,
Mexico, said that the historic meeting will be a magnificent opportunity
for judges and journalists to discuss the importance of the need the improve
perceptions of each other, which undoubtedly will redound to the benefit of
Chilean democracy.
The Santiago conference is the fifth in a series of judicial forums that the
IAPA is organizing in Latin America. The initiative emerged from the Hemisphere
Summit on Press Freedom in the Americas that the IAPA held in Washington, D.C.,
last June, when supreme courts justice from 23 countries in Latin America and
journalists from throughout the region got together. Conferences have already
been held in Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Peru.
In Chile the agenda will include roundtable discussions on various issues relating
to reporting, such as access to court records, privacy and the right to know,
relationships between judges and reporters, libel, insult laws, and other topics.
The judges will also examine a practical case along with the journalists.
The IAPA delegation is headed by President Andrés García and
is also made up of Carlos Alberto Salinas, El Diario de Coahuila, Coahuila,
Mexico; IAPA Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz; Peter J. Messitte, federal
judge from Maryland, United States; Argentine lawyer Gregorio Badeni; former
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Chairman Claudio Grossman; Chapultepec
Project Lawyer Jairo Lanao, and Chpaultepec Project Manager Sean Casey.
For more details on this admission-free event, contact the IAPA headquarters
in Miami, telephone (305) 634-2465, fax (305) 635-2272, e-mail [email protected].
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