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By JAMES ANDERSON
.c The Associated Press
SAN JUAN,
Puerto Rico (AP) - Puerto Rico's government must end its discriminatory use of
official advertising to punish news media on the Caribbean island, the Inter
American Press Association says.
Concluding its midyear meeting in San Juan on Tuesday, IAPA found that Gov.
Pedro Rossello's administration engaged in "a pattern of coercion and
harassment'' against Puerto Rican reporters, especially those at El Nuevo Dia
newspaper.
Rossello pulled millions of dollars of official advertising from El Nuevo
Dia last year after the paper, the island's largest, published investigative
stories on alleged government corruption.
Rossello said he made the decision to save the government money, and he
charged that the newspaper was using IAPA to further its own economic interests.
El Nuevo Dia has filed a U.S. federal court lawsuit to force the
administration to place ads without regard to news content. Other Puerto Rican
journalists claimed the government withholds public information and intimidates
reporters.
"Official advertising belongs to the people and not the government and
therefore is not to be used to reward or punish newspapers because of what they
publish,'' IAPA declared Tuesday.
IAPA also called for investigations into the murders of 12 reporters in
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala over the past six months. It condemned
increasing repression against independent journalists in Cuba, "where there
is no freedom of expression and no freedom of the press.''
Among regional advances cited by IAPA were a November UNESCO resolution
bolstering press freedoms and the creation of an Organization of American States
monitor of press freedoms.
IAPA also resolved to:
Call upon Argentina not to enact a tax on newspaper advertisements, which it
said could threaten the survival of small newspapers.
Demand an investigation into the unsolved January 1997 slaying of Jose Luis
Cabezas, a crusading Argentine photographer killed while looking into suspected
government corruption.
Urge Brazil's Supreme Court and justice minister to ensure that large damage
awards ordered by courts against news organizations don't threaten press
freedom.
Urge St. Kitts and Nevis to investigate the firebombing of the Observer
newspaper's offices.
Express concern at recent court decisions in Costa Rica, including the
conviction of three journalists on charges of libeling a justice minister -
something with which they had not been originally charged.
Demand that Cuba revoke a recently enacted law making it a criminal offense
to provide information to news media and release jailed journalists.
Exhort Peru to stop persecuting Jose Arrieta, a journalist forced into exile
after reporting on human rights violations by the armed forces. It also called
on Peru to restore the citizenship of Israeli-born Baruch Ivcher, who lost his
majority stake in Channel 2 television after the station reported on abuses
committed by the military.
Applaud passage of a law in Peru that rejected mandatory licensing of
journalists. IAPA also urged Chile's Congress to reject licensing legislation
and called for repeal of licensing restrictions in Colombia, Panama and
Venezuela.
Urge governments throughout the region to eliminate statutes of limitations
on crimes committed against journalists in the practice of their professions and
strengthen measures to try and convict those who mastermind journalists'
murders.
Congratulate The Associated Press on its 150th anniversary and salute the 23
AP men and women who have lost their lives while on assignment.
Support, at the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Chile, all initiatives in
favor of freedom of speech and press.
Oppose prosecutions of journalists for publishing results of election
opinion polls in Mexico, Paraguay and Costa Rica.
AP-NY-03-18-98 0236EST |