Monday, March 31, 2008

LatAm press freedoms “under threat” says IAPA

The freedom of press in numerous Latin American countries is “under threat”, according to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). The IAPA conference cited the governments of Cuba and Venezuela for detaining journalists and increasing restrictions against the press, respectively. Yet the IAPA also highlighted other countries for not ensuring full liberties to the media:

The IAPA statement singled out the United States for trying to erode a reporter's right to source confidentiality, noting court "cases where federal judges force journalists to reveal their sources and impose heavy fines on them."
The IAPA meeting also issued a resolution against the growing number of unsolved murders and kidnappings of journalists in Argentina, Honduras, Haiti, Mexico and Colombia, whose governments it urged to investigate "quickly and thoroughly."

The IAPA conference was in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas where a parallel forum was also held denouncing the supposed conspiracy between regional media and “the corporate elite.”

Sources- BBC News, International Herald Tribune, caribbeannetnews.com, Voice of America

Image- BBC News

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