VENEZUELA
Midyear Meeting
Cartagena de índias, Colombia
March 16 - 19, 2007

WHEREAS
the Venezuelan government has established a system of rules intended to violate freedom of expression and information, rights that are enshrined in Articles 57 and 58 of the Constitution

WHEREAS
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States asserted on March 9, 2007 that there has been “gradual deterioration in the rule of law” in Venezuela

WHEREAS
the defense of the universal right to freedom of expression and information is a doctrine and essential commitment of the Inter American Press Association, enshrined in the principles it was founded on and in the Declaration of Chapultepec

WHEREAS
the Inter American Press Association and the Association for International Broadcasting signed the “Caracas Agreement” on August 8, 1973, reaffirming the values and principles inherent in human rights as stated in an earlier document signed by both organizations on March 23, 1952 in Panama

WHEREAS
these documents proclaim the “conviction that material progress and spiritual wellbeing can only be achieved in an atmosphere of freedom and respect for the human person,” and thus reaffirm “their categorical repudiation of all types of dictatorship, a dictatorship, which no matter what form it takes, is a negation of the fundamental rights of man and of the community

WHEREAS
the president of the republic, Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez, has announced that the license of channel Radio Caracas Televisión, the premier television channel in the country, will not be renewed

WHEREAS
judicial persecution of journalists continues, as in the cases of Marianella Salazar, Napoleón Bravo, Freddy Machado, José Angel Ocanto. Currently journalist Patricia Poleo remains in exile, having been named by the national attorney general as the alleged mastermind behind the murder of a Public Ministry prosecutor

WHEREAS
the regime of President Chávez is applying financial sanctions to independent media outlets, such as the fines ordered on the daily Tal Cual, its publisher Teodor Petkoff and columnist Laureano Márquez for 200 million bolivars; Radio Caracas Televisión was also fined 1.5 million bolivars

WHEREAS
the Venezuelan government uses the placement of official advertising for political control, rewarding the many media outlets established by the regime and those subordinate to it with large ads, while it encourages economic harassment against those that do not submit

WHEREAS
the National Assembly has delegated to President Chávez broad powers to legislate by decree, which has the consequence of great danger for the judicial order and for democracy

WHEREAS
the program of legal changes, decisions and measures that the government of President Chávez is applying in Venezuela to control society are characteristic of dictatorial regimes

WHEREAS
Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly”

WHEREAS
Principle 6 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “The media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say”

WHEREAS
Principle 10 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticizing or denouncing the government”
THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES

to denounce before the international community the dictatorial violation of freedom of expression by the regime of Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

to repudiate the politically motivated decision by President Chávez and his administration, with no legal basis whatsoever, to close the country’s leading channel Radio Caracas Televisión and expropriate its facilities

to condemn the continual judicial persecution of journalists, including Patricia Poleo, Napoleón Bravo, Marianella Salazar, José Ocanto, Freddy Machado, and Marianela Agreda

to reject the use the Chávez regime makes of the placement of government advertising for purposes of control, favoring government media outlets and promoting self-censorship, such as the fines on the daily Tal Cual, its publisher and columnist Laureano Márquez.