The Committee also adopted resolutions on Ethiopia, Russia, Tunisia and Zimbabwe, as well as on the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held here December 10-12. Another resolution gave support to a call on the Mexican government to comply with a mandate from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that it investigate crimes against journalists.

The resolutions were adopted and signed by the seven of the nine organizations belonging to the Coordinating Committee - International Association of Broadcasting, World Association of Newspapers, North American Broadcasters Association, World Press Freedom Committee, International Press Institute, International Federation of the Periodical Press and Inter American Press Association.

During the two-day meeting in Geneva the IAPA was represented by former presidents Andrés García Lavín, Novedades de Mérida, Mérida, Mexico, and Andrés García Gamboa, Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancún, Mexico, Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz and Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti.

Following is the full text of the resolutions on the United States, Cuba and Venezuela:

UNITED STATES

The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations during its December 8 - 9, meeting in Geneva, issued the following resolution on United States.

WHEREAS
the American Society of Newspaper Editors recently drafted a resolution, also approved by the General Assembly of the IAPA in Chicago, asking the U.S. Congress to include journalists in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program for visitors from friendly countries

WHEREAS
the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations shares the ASNEs concern over the detention and expulsion of foreign journalists from the United States in recent months

WHEREAS
the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations shares the ASNEs concern that keeping journalists out of the United States damages the U.S. image as an open society

THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE RESOLVES

To adopt the ASNE resolution calling on the U.S. Congress in its annual renewal of the Visa Waiver Program to add journalists to the many professions that do not need a visa for their stays in the United States.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) resolution follows:

Whereas
Working foreign journalists are excluded from our countrys Visa Waiver Program under which visitors from 27 friendly countries can enter the U.S. for business or pleasure without a visa if they intend to stay for less than 90 days

Whereas
In recent months numerous foreign journalists have been seized at our borders, rejected for entry and deported forcibly to their home countries because they did not have long-term visas

Whereas
Working journalists have been excluded from the Visa Waiver Program historically because they could obtain long-term visas with ease and because Customs official routinely waived them in without long-term visas

Whereas
Keeping foreign journalists out of the U.S. damages our countrys image as an open society, does nothing to enhance our border security and encourages other nations to make conditions more difficult for American journalists abroad

Now, therefore:
The board of directors of the American Society of Newspaper Editors calls on Congress in its annual renewal of the Visa Waiver Program to add journalists to the many professions who do not need a visa for short stays in our country.

CUBA

The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations during its December 8 - 9, meeting in Geneva, issued the following resolution on Cuba.

WHEREAS
there has been no press freedom in Cuba for 44 years

WHEREAS
in an unprecedented increase in repression, the Cuban government arrested 28 independent journalists and sentenced them after summary trials, to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years for simply disseminating news, ideas and opinions outside the governments control

WHEREAS
the Cuban regimes arbitrary actions were not limited to imposing sentences, but also included sending the prisoners to high-security prisons far from their homes and families with deplorable hygiene, food and medical conditions

WHEREAS
other members of the independent press are constantly harassed and threatened to give up their work or be charged

WHEREAS
the spiraling repression of the Cuban regime also targets the peoples other options for information, such as unauthorized Internet connections, access to foreign television and unofficial video rental centers, which try to remove the people from totalitarian control and open space for information and entertainment other than official propaganda

THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE RESOLVES

To demand the immediate release of the jailed journalists

to demand an end to the campaign of harassment and repression against independent journalism in Cuba, and the restrictions imposed on Cuban society to deprive its citizens of the right to information and freedom of expression

to ask democratic governments, professional organizations, human rights groups, civic associations and the international community to strongly ask the Cuban government to declare a general amnesty for all the journalists and other prisoners of conscience and to immediately reestablish press freedom on the island.

VENEZUELA

WHEREAS
a mission to Venezuela of the Inter American Press Association and the International Press Institute obtained a commitment by the Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council that freedom of the press and access to information will be respected during the Venezuelan recall process that began in late November

WHEREAS
impediments to freedom of expression and freedom of the press have been observed, these being temporary limitations on advertising in the media prior to the signature collection stage and the initial phase of the recall process, the ambiguity of the wording of the Councils regulations with respect to sanctions to be applied to media for non-observance, and discrimination in the placement of official advertising, as well as such other limitations applying to the media as government foreign exchange controls that hinder the free flow of information in that they restrict the medias productivity

WHEREAS
the government of Venezuela has not complied with the various provisional and precautionary measures agreed by the Inter-American Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, whose objective is to protect the right to life and personal wellbeing, as well as the freedom of expression and freedom of the press of publishers, editors and journalists of the news media in general

WHEREAS
the Venezuela Supreme Court upheld decision number 1942 which reiterates the principles of its previous decision number 1013, whose wording sets out legal rules restricting news content, the National Assembly continues to debate the bill for a Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, known as the Content Law, whose clauses would subject the entire broadcast system to full and flagrant public control and set official guidelines for news content, and there remains on the legislative agenda the bill for a Law of Citizen Participation which would create a Peoples Oversight Council aimed at controlling print media

WHEREAS
the murder of news photographer Jorge Tortoza of the newspaper Diario 2001, killed as he was covering violent protest demonstrations in Venezuela on April 11, 2002, continues to go unpunished, and assaults on media and journalists have not been duly investigated or those responsible punished

THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE RESOLVES

To urge Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his government officials to respect freedom of the press and freedom of expression

to ask the judicial and the legislative branches to discard bills contrary to freedom of the press and freedom of expression

to call upon all international organizations that keep watch over freedom of the press to remain vigilant in order to be prepared to send delegations to Venezuela with the aim of preserving freedom of the press and democracy.