ACCESS TO INFORMATION
WHEREAS
the Argentine Senate has approved a bill that does not reflect the democratic
principles necessary for transparency in public administration and accountability
in government, and that dangerously makes private entities subject to the law
and requires them to open their records
WHEREAS
in Bolivia Supreme Decree No. 27239 called “On Transparency and Access
to Information” is the subject of a dispute between the government of
President Carlos Mesa and press workers unions, journalists and representatives
of written and broadcast media
WHEREAS
there has been no significant progress in the Chilean Congress in studying a
bill to ease access to public sources nor in the necessary amendments to the
current law regulating government administration in order to establish transparency
in public administration
WHEREAS
the Ecuadorean government recently passed regulations for the Law on Transparency
and Freedom of Information, which cancel out the law’s purpose by establishing
discretionary exceptions not provided for under the law
WHEREAS
on January 10, the Puerto Rican House of Representatives introduced a bill entitled
“Law on Government Transparency” that allows the media to attend
government meetings, deliberations, and policy-making sessions, as a supplementary
measure to a law on freedom of information, and although this law has not yet
met with the approval of the media, they have been invited to give their recommendations
on the matter
WHEREAS
the Dominican regulations for the General Law on Freedom of Information were
passed on February 28 after extensive consultations with civic groups, journalists’
organizations and others
WHEREAS
a freedom of information act in Paraguay was vetoed by the executive branch,
and its wording was not upheld by Congress
WHEREAS
Principle 3 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “The authorities
must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and reasonable manner
the information generated by the public sector. No journalist may be forced
to reveal his or her sources of information”
THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE
IAPA RESOLVES
to request that the Argentine
Congress, and particularly the Chamber of Deputies, consult with civic groups
and journalists’ organizations and reject the bill approved by the senate
to urge the Bolivian government
to open the debate about freedom of information to journalistic and nongovernmental
organizations as a way to raise this issue to the level of legislation that
would be binding on all three branches of government
to urge the legislative
branch in Chile to accelerate the process of considering and discussing a law
that would effectively permit access to the public record
to encourage the Ecuadorean
president to amend the regulations implementing the Law of Transparency and
Freedom of Information to make them consistent with the letter and spirit of
the law
to request that members
of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives consult with the media and collect
their recommendations in order to pass the measure on the presence of the media
at government meetings and deliberations
to urge that the government
of the Dominican Republic strictly comply with the new legislation and duly
consider all freedom of information requests submitted by the public and the
media
to urge the Paraguayan authorities to prepare a bill on freedom of information
by consulting with civic leaders and the media in order to pass such a measure
and achieve true transparency in public administration.
