Midyear Meeting Los Cabos March, 12 - 15, 2004 Mexico

COLOMBIA

WHEREAS
while the Antiterrorist Statute does not expressly mention the media or journalistic activity, there is concern that it might endanger the confidentiality of news sources or allow tapping of telephones without a court order

WHEREAS
Congressman Juan Gómez has repeated that he would reintroduce his bill to revise the Criminal Code to would extend penalties for libel to statements that are unfounded or with controversial evidence

WHEREAS
for the second time in less than a year the Constitutional Court has returned the bill that elevates journalism to a profession

WHEREAS
Principle 3 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, “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”

WHEREAS

Principle 8 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, “The membership of journalists in guilds, their affiliation to professional and trade associations and the affiliation of the media with business groups must be strictly voluntary.”

THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES

to urge Congress to adopt an antiterrorist statute that will develop the recently approved constitutional norms, guarantee confidentiality of sources, which has constitutional protection and is also an essential element of news work

call on Congressman Juan Gómez Martínez to refrain from presenting the bill, and if he does, to ask Congress to refrain from considering it because it would punish expression of opinion

to urge Congress to table the bill to professionalize journalism because of the risk that undue regulation could cause for the free and independent practice of journalism, that is the possibility that the decision of who is or is not a journalist would be in the hands of the state and that categories of journalists would be established.