Miami, Florida (January 9, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today a conference on freedom of the press in Mexico which will bring together judges and journalists to analyze relations between the media and Judicial Branch. The President of the Mexican Supreme Court, Mariano Azuela Güitrón, will inaugurate the event.
Scheduled on Wednesday, January 14, at the Sheraton María Isabel Hotel in Mexico City, the “Judicial Conference on Freedom of the Press in Mexico” aims to create a dialogue between judges and journalists on the administration of justice and the exercise of journalism in that country. Seven Supreme Court justices and all 31 State Courts and the Capital, from Baja California to Quintana Roo, will participate in the conference, as well as newspaper publishers, editores, columnists, and journalists.
This conference to be held in the Mexican capital is the ninth in a series of meetings the IAPA has organized in select Latin American countries. The initiative began following the Hemisphere Summit on Justice and Press Freedom in the Americas the IAPA sponsored in June 2002, in Washington, D.C., which brought together judges from 23 countries in the Western Hemisphere and journalists. Similar conferences were held in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.
In Mexico, the agenda includes several panels on topics relating to the practice of journalism, including access to trials and judicial information. Well-known local speakers have been included in the program, such as journalist Sergio Sarmiento from TV Azteca and political analyst, Miguel Angel Granados Chapa, as well as renown researchers from the Institute of Justicial Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
In the evening, the IAPA will host a special coctail at the Alcázar Terrace of Chapultepec Castle (National Museum of History) as part of a series of activities celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Declaration of Chapultepec.
This declaration was adopted during the Hemisphere Conference on Freedom of Expression, held at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, on March 11, 1994. It was the result of more than a year’s work in examining the challenges for freedom of expression and of the press in the democracies of the hemisphere. The declaration has ten fundamental principles necessary for a free press to fulfill its essential role in a democracy. The Declaration of Chapultepec has been signed and endorsed by Heads of State from 29 countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The special celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Declaration will continue in March during the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, where a panel is planned with the founders and promoters of the Declaration and will culminate in a Hemisphere Summit scheduled in May in Washington, D.C.
For more information on these events, which are free to the public, please contact the IAPA headquarters in Miami: Tel. 305-634-2465; Fax. 305-635-2272; correo electorónico, [email protected].
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