The Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, of which the International Press Institute is a member, has endorsed a resolution by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), another member, naming 2011 “The Year of Freedom of Expression in the Western Hemisphere”.
IPI and other committee members agreed in a meeting on 10 December in New York to endorse the resolution, which seeks to promote press freedom and to protect journalists, and calls on governments to respect a free press and on individual journalists not to back down in supporting it.
IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín – editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre – said: “The support of our colleagues from around the entire world reinforces our commitment to defend this fundamental human right for there to be democracy, enabling us to pay special attention to the issue in the Americas.”
IPI Acting Director Alison Bethel McKenzie stated: “We wholeheartedly support our colleagues in the Inter-American Press Association and their push to underscore press freedom in Latin America in particular. It is a region of concern for all press freedom organizations around the world.”
Other Coordinating Committee members who agreed to support the resolution include the International Association of Broadcasting, the International Federation of the Periodical Press, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the World Press Freedom Committee.
In conjunction with the resolution, IAPA has called for the continuation of public awareness campaigns, such as its Impunity Committee’s “Lend Your Voice For Those Who Have No Voice” campaign and its Chapultepec Committee’s “One Word Can Make A Thousand Changes In Your Life” campaign. The latter is aimed at raising public awareness about the fact that “when the functioning of a free press is trampled on and restricted the value of democracy and sustainable development of nations is undermined,” IAPA said.
Marroquín commented that in the coming year IAPA will continue to pursue its task of “intensifying joint activities in favor of the promotion of freedom of the press and of expression and the protection of journalists, through the holding of missions, forums, seminars and training programs.”
Scheduled activities include a Freedom of Expression Conference in April at the campus of the Institute of the Americas in San Diego, California, to be held jointly with the American Society of News Editors; celebration of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May in Santiago, Chile; and a Hemisphere Conference on Impunity set for early July in Puebla, Mexico. Other activities include IAPA’s two half-yearly membership meetings in San Diego in April—following the Freedom of Expression Conference—and in Lima, Peru, in October.
IAPA delegations are also scheduled to travel to countries where legal actions are being taken against the press, and the group has planned a series of seminar and webinars focusing on freedom of expression and risks in covering the news, as well as the traditional forums organized by Press Institute, IAPA’s educational arm.
