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1March 2010

IAPA

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sIssue No. 453 • VIVANCO TO RECEIVE CHAPULTEPEC GRAND PRIZE IN ARUBA

•FORUM WITH VENEZUELAN STUDENTS

ALSO INTHISISSUE

1. Farewell to Luis

Gabriel Cano2. Santos retires from El Tiempo3. IAPA-UNAM online course

President Lobo signsDeclaration of Chapultepec

The Host Committee for the 66th General Assembly, scheduled for October in Chile, reported to IAPA President Alejandro J. Aguirre that due to the official declaration of disaster following the February 27 earthquake it has voted unanimously

1st Vice President Gonzalo Marroquín and Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz watch as the Honduran president signs the Declaration.

On February 18 the president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, stated his belief that freedom is a fundamental right of human beings and social or political systems, immediately adding his signature to the Declaration of Chapultepec before an enthusiastic crowd of students of the Central American Technological University (UNITEC) in the Honduran capital. (Page 6)

L. to r.: IAPA President Alejandro J. Aguirre, mpunity Committee Chairman Francisco Ealy Ortiz and Mexican Senate President Carlos Navarrete

Progress in MexicoA three-day mission to Mexico to urge action against violence and impunity made important progress in February. In Mexico City the delegation was informed of the reorganization of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing with Crimes Committed Against Journalists, which now will report directly to the Attorney General. Two days later, in Durango, the IAPA delegation held a forum with editors and publishers from four Mexican states, immediately following which

the governor agreed to review official investigations into the murders of four journalists. (Page 5)

Press quake victims offered support

Chile unable to host October

MOBILIZATION TO AID HAITIANS, CHILEANSFollowing the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile the IAPA is mobilizing aid efforts for newspapers and journalists affected. An initial assessment of damage was carried out in Chile and at the Midyear Meeting in Aruba representatives of Haitian newspapers will report on their situation. Several initiatives are at work. Pictured at left, the destroyed building of the newspaper La Prensa de Curicó in southern Chile. (Page 3)

to cancel the event. “We can assure you that we will do everything possible to find an alternative venue, as well as cooperate in the scheduling of the activities at that site,” said the message received by Aguirre. (Page 3)

2March 2010

IAPA

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sIssue No. 453

The last time I bade farewell to my readers of “Contraescape” was because I was heading for the executive offices of El Tiempo where I spent 10 years. One year ago I left that position and returned to this column. Today I am saying goodbye again because I am leaving El Tiempo.

I feel that I have completed a defining life cycle at this newspaper, which has been an important part of me. Times change, people change, the trade changes, life changes.Acknowledging that this moment has arrived has been a process that touched me deeply. It means leaving what

has been my home - ¬ not just a newsroom - for as long as I can remember. As it was for my father and my grandfather who, like me, had never done other than work as a journalist.It is to recall, in one fell swoop, all the stages of my 45 years at El Tiempo. And also a full and not uneventful professional life that went from the founding of university newspapers and revolutionary magazines, to foreign correspondent and inter-American spokesman roles.But it is here, in all types of news items, reports, editorials - and more than 30 years of “Contraescape” - where I left all I am and written all I have been. The passions and contradictions, angers and fears, convictions and disappointments that have accompanied me in the struggle to capture such a heartrending and complex country have all been expressed on the pages of this newspaper to which I today bid farewell.Since the beginning I agreed with the decision to seek a majority strategic partner, with all its implications and inevitable changes, which meant a change in the management of El Tiempo, my return to this column and a move to less daily work on the Editorial Board, during which I collaborated in the important process of linking Planeta as the strategic partner of this newspaper.Today, it is only natural, I would like to breath fresh air. I am going from this company, but not from expressing opinions or writing. And I depart grateful for all that El Tiempo, throughout the years, has taught me - to love a trade, to feel for my country and to think freely. I see this new

Time to say farewell phase as an opportunity to continue an intellectual path, perhaps less linked to institutional, business or family ties. I opt, in fact, for this independence because after so many years I have the privilege of making this choice. .

Words cannot convey, as I would wish, my feelings at this farewell to that other great family, the El Tiempo newsroom,…the solid team of reporters and editors who are the heart and soul of the paper. All of them, especially those who put up with my demands and impatience, I take with me.To the editor, Roberto Pombo, personal friend and colleague in many battles; to my brother Luis Fernando, president and business architect of this News Company, almost as long involved in these fights as I; to my close former co- editor and cousin Rafael, to them and to all the collaborators in this newspaper, I do not have say how much I will miss them. Nor need I mention the success that I wish them in their efforts to make El Tiempo continue as the country’s leading newspaper and foremost point of reference for credibility, tolerance and pluralism among Colombians.I know very well that this is what they wishfor; it is in their blood. To everyone, fair wind, good seas and a fond farewell.

Santos

FORMER IAPA PRESIDENT (2008-2009) ENRIQUE SAN TOS CALDERON’S COLUMN ANNOUNCING HIS RETIREMENT FROM EL TIEMPO, BOGOTA, COLOMBIA

Vivanco to receive Chapultepec Grand Prize in ArubaDuring the IAPA’s 65th General Assembly in Buenos Aires the jury for the 2010 Chapultepec Grand Prize voted to award it to José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, for his defense of freedom of expression and the principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec. The prestigious jurist was invited to the Midyear Meeting in Aruba. where he will be presented with the award on Sunday, March 21. Vivanco worked as an attorney for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS). In 1900 he founded the Center of Justice and International Law, a non-governmental organization that files complaints with international human rights organizations. Vivanco has been Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Vivanco

In BriefAnniversary: The Guatemalan daily newspaper Siglo Veintiuno on March 1 celebrated two decades of publication. Editor-in-Chief Luis Eduardo Marroquín Godoy said that the newspaper has become a point of reference and has revolutionized the popular paper market in the country.

Contest: The Journalism Center on Children and Families is calling for entries in its 2010 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, awarded annually for outstanding coverage of the topic. Audio and video categories have been added to the awards this year. For more information go to www.journalismcenter.org.

Winners: The Knight International Center for Journalists has selected the first winners of its International Journalism Fellows scholarships that seek to promote innovation in news media in developing countries. Exposure of corruption in Panama and the launch of the first training center for radio broadcasting in Peru are among the winning entries. Details at www.knight.icfj.org.

Call for entries: Online publications and blogs can enter the contest for the prestigious Pulitzer Journalism Prizes, it was announced in early December. For more information, www.pulitzer.org/how to enter.

3 Issue No. 453 March 2010

An IAPA campaign to collect equipment such as cameras, tape recorders and computers is under way in a plan to give donations to Haitian journalists in Aruba. One of two panel discussions scheduled for Sunday, March 21 during the Midyear Meeting will focus on various aid projects for that nation. Max Chauvet, of the newspaper Le Nouvelliste and Daly Valet of Le Matin of Port-au-Prince, will be present, along with journalists who were in Haiti for several weeks following the earthquake.

IAPA officers have agreed to open for discussion, in Aruba, how to energize and diversify the campaign to which is a joint effort with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE). At the same time, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) of the United States is preparing its own evaluation of press needs in Haiti and will share the report with the IAPA so that aid is channeled in the best way possible.

The IAPA informed that in Chile the most visible damage to newspapers occurred in the south of the nation. One dramatic case is that of La Prensa de Curicó, 100 miles south of the Chilean capital, Santiago. Its building collapsed when the quake struck but the staff was able to rescue the equipment and move it to another site. The paper hopes to resume publication in April.. n

AID STRATEGIES TO BEDISCUSSED IN ARUBA

The Host Committee for the 66th General Assembly in Chile is co-chaired by Felipe Edwards of the El Mercurio Company and Jorge Andrés Saieh of Copesa News Consortium. Other members include Mónica Comandari of Revista Cosas, Guillermo Turner, president of the National Press Association (ANP) and Ricardo Puga, chairman of ANP’s Regional Newspapers Committee. “The tragedy took us by surprise in the midst of preparations for the Inter American Press Association’s 66th General Assembly scheduled for October in Santiago, which we were working on enthusiastically. Unfortunately and understandably, under these conditions it has become impossible for us to receive the IAPA members this year,” the Host Committee said.

Santiago, Chile, was the venue for the 56th General Assembly in 2000. This is the first time that the principal annual IAPA meeting has been cancelled for reasons of force majeure. “All our citizens’ energy is focused on overcoming the emergency and beginning to rebuild as soon as possible,” the Host Committee added. n

HOST COMMITTEE: ENERGY

NOW GEARED TO REBUILDINGIAPA officers begin search for alternative venue for 66th General Assembly in October

4 Issue No. 453 March 2010

On Tuesday, February 2ND, before a packed auditorium at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Caracas, Venezuela, the IAPA’s Chapultepec Ambassadors program held a forum on freedom of expression to raise awareness among Latin American university students of its important role in democratic societies.During the forum, titled “Press Freedom, Reality, Obstacles and Solutions,” IAPA Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz expressed the organization’s willingness to hold talks with the Venezuelan government about press freedom and free speech issues, and at the same time he declared that what is happening to the press in Venezuela “is a copy” of what used to happen in totalitarian countries. Muñoz recalled that in recent years IAPA representatives have gone more than 14 times to Venezuela and its invitations to President Hugo Chávez “have never been accepted.”Nonetheless, Muñoz reiterated an invitation to the president and his Communication Minister to attend the IAPA’s Midyear Meeting March 19-22 in Aruba, to “get a direct response to what we would like to discuss.”Jurist Asdrúbal Aguiar told the forum that case law of the Inter-American Human Rights Court does not allow any kind of censorship, stressing that “the Declaration of Chapultepec stipulates that prior censorship is prohibited because it is not possible to speak of freedom of information and of the press when all the players have to be careful about what they may or may not say in public.”UCAB Social Communications Postgraduate Director Marcelino Bisbal referred to the Venezuelan government’s history of actions against press freedom, including the shut-down of RCTV and 32 radio stations. He stated that the indiscriminate use of the presidential network has amounted to 55 full days of broadcast since 1999.

He added that the government is preparing a law on Internet control since it has become an escape valve from government domination.Argentine journalist Adrián Ventura, who together with Aguiar and other prominent figures is taking part in the Chapultepec Ambassadors program, said “the Kirchners” model in Argentina is comparable to Chavez’ “revolution” in that it seeks to “abandon” 400 years of evolution of liberty which, he recalled, began in 1640 when prior censorship was prohibited in England.As part of the Ambassadors program four Venezuelan university students have written essays on their experiences during the mass student protests in Caracas over violations of free expression.These essays are part of the Chapultepec Project enabling young people to express their points of views and experiences with press freedom in their societies. n

Forum held on future of the presswith Venezuelan studentsIAPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AGAIN INVITES CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT TO THE TABLE

Julio E. Muñoz, Executive director, right, gives a press conference and, below, the UCAB auditorium that hosted international experts on free expression.

5 Issue No. 453 March 2010

Successful Mexico mission ‘DECLARATION OF DURANGO’ EXPRESSES EDITORS, PUBLISHERS DEMANDS ON WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN FOUR STATES

On March 15 at a working session with an IAPA international delegation in Mexico Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont and Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez announced that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Committed Against Journalists has been reorganized and a new public prosecutor, Gustavo Salas Chávez named.Under the reorganization, which still must be approved through administrative channels and published in the Official Gazette, the Special Prosecutor’s Office will report directly to the Attorney General rather than to the Human Rights Division for Dealing with Victims and Services to the Community.IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre, editor of the Miami, Florida, newspaper Diario Las Américas, declared this to be “an important step that meets one of our longtime goals since the public prosecutor’s office has had its hands tied, powerless to carry out its duties as a prosecutor’s office and unable to efficiently present cases at the federal level, which was the objective when it was established in 2006.”In the conversation with the IAPA delegation Gómez Mont also addressed the subject of weaknesses in the system that would have to be resolved, namely the ambiguity of jurisdiction between state and federal governments, and the need to define legal responses that enable greater transparency in investigations of crimes against journalists.The delegation later took part in a forum with Senate President Carlos Navarrete (PRD party), federal senators and congressmen belonging to various political parties, as well as Raúl Plascencia, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Luis González, legal counsel to the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), Arelí Gómez, Assistant Attorney General, and editors and publishers from the Mexican media.Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, president of El Universal, stressed the importance of coming up with common ground allowing the press to conduct a “joint battle” against violence, while

agreeing with Plascencia that “what is needed and cannot be postponed for democracy” is legal reform that makes crimes against journalists federal offenses.In Durango, where Governor Ismael Hernández pledged to review the investigations into the murders of four journalists that are unpunished, 25 editors and publishers from four Mexican states, convened by the IAPA, issued the Declaration of Durango criticizing the regional and state authorities for their lack of action to combat the general climate of violence. This Declaration can be found at www.impunidad.com. n

The IAPA Mexico mission was made up of President Alejandro J. Aguirre, Diario Las Américas, Miami, Florida; the chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, San Antonio Express-News, Texas; the committee’s regional vice chairman, Juan Fernando Healy, Periódicos Healy, Mexico; José Santiago Healy, Diario San Diego, California; Roberto Rock, El Universal, Mexico; Executive Director Julio E. Muñoz and Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti.

IAPA-UNAM onlinedegree courseBeginning on May 3, IAPA and the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) will offer Mexican and foreign journalists and students an online degree course “The reach of organized crime: The practice of journalism In the face of violence.” The objective of the course is to study the phenomenon of violence and the exercise of freedom of expression.

The agreement to hold the 10-week-long course jointly was signed on February 17 by the dean of UNAM’s School of Political and Social Sciences, Fernando Castañeda, and IAPA President Alejandro J. Aguirre.

6 Issue No. 453 March 2010

The dean of American University’s School of Law, Claudio Grossman, has been given the award of the American Civil Liberties Union, Washington, D.C, Chapter, for his work in

defense of freedoms. “I feel honored to be a part of a group of individuals who have received the Henry W. Edgerton Civil Liberties Award. More than a personal recognition I regard it as a reaffirmation of the need to work tirelessly for the eradication of torture,” Grossman said. The list of

recipients, presenters or speakers in the history of the Edgerton awards includes members of the United State Supreme Court, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Iranian author Salman Rushdie and U.S. Senators Edward Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. n

Grossman awardedcivil rights prize

New dean

Grossman

Gary Kebbel, who headed the Journalism Program of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has been named dean of the University of Nebraska’s School of Journalism.

“It is great news for Gary and Nebraska and also for our foundation, as we will have a colleague in the trenches, helping to shape journalism in the digital age,” commented Knight Foundation President , Alberto Ibargüen. n

Kebel

One of the most significant aspects of the ceremony of the signing of the Declaration of Chapultepec by President Lobo of Honduras was the fact that the venue, the auditorium of the Central American Technological University (UNITEC), was packed with students wanting to witness the event, a forum titled “Press Freedom, Reality and Obstacles,” organized by the IAPA.

President Lobo asked the news media to join him in respecting citizens’ rights “to be free and fight for our people not to have to suffer limitations.”

IAPA 1st Vice President Gonzalo Marroquín spoke of the setbacks that society faces when press

freedom is restricted by authoritarian governments who believe themselves to be the owners of the truth and seek to control information. He declared that “we media are not the owners of the truth, but seekers of the truth,” and mentioned that “traps” are set for journalists through the use of words introduced in laws, for example, that information must be accurate and responsible, words that hide the real objective which is to control and set limits on the media.

For a year the IAPA’s Chapultepec Project has been holding a series of forums in a number of Latin American countries to call young people’s attention to the state of freedom of the press in the societies in which they live. n

El presidente Lobo, tras suscribir la Declaración de Chapultepec, saluda al jurista venezolano Asdrúbal Aguiar, colaborador del Proyecto Chapultepec de la SIP.

Esta fotografía tomada con un teléfono portátil muestra el auditorio lleno de estudiantes en la Universidad Andrés Bello de Caracas, Venezuela, en un foro de la SIP días antes del realizado en Honduras.

Honduran students witnessPresident Lobo’s pledge

A broad group of U.S. citizens and leaders joined together on March 8 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. during a forum organized by the Knight Foundation, to promote strategies to provide wideband Internet to more than 93 million Americans who lack such a service. Under this initiative it is hoped the U.S. government will commit to making broadband available to 90% of the population by 2020. n

Right to broadband

7 Issue No. 453 March 2010

SPONSORS OF E-NEWS

Environmental journalismSeminar series endsWith strong evaluations by participants from five countries, on March 9th the IAPA Press Institute finished its series of seminars on news coverage of the environment and environmental offenses in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. the series was supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).More than 150 journalists took part in the conferences which featured expert speakers, among them Arturo Larena, coordinator of the Spanish news agency EFE’s Environmental Project; international consultant Alvaro Sierra, and Magalí Rey Rosa, a Guatemalan ecologist.The series began on January 25 in San Salvador, El Salvador, and continued on the 28th in Managua, Nicaragua. The third seminar was held on February 22 in San José, Costa Rica, and on the 25th another was held in Hermosillo, Mexico, at the Healy Foundation’s Delta Center.The events focused on increasing skills in

Ginna Morelo, investigations, features and reports editor of the Córdoba, Colombia, newspaper El Meridiano, during her address to the San Pedro Sula, Honduras, seminar, the last in the series on environmental journalism organized by the IAPA with UNESCO sponsorship

environmental journalism, investigative reporting and news coverage in dangerous situations.Local IAPA member newspapers provided logistical support for the conferences and chose journalists to attend the course free of charge. Each participant received a diploma . n

8 Issue No. 453 March 2010

Author and journalist Tomás Eloy Martínez died on January 31 at the age of 75. His loss was felt in press circles throughout Latin America, the United States and Europe.

The author of “La Novela de Perón (1985) and “Santa Evita” (1995) was a speaker at a number of American universities and is remembered for some of his talks at IAPA General Assemblies and meetings. From 1975 to 1983 he lived in political exile in Caracas, Venezuela. n

Argentine pressluminary dies Luis Gabriel Cano Isaza,

former president of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and IAPA president in 1996-1997, died on Sunday, January 17 at his home in Cartagena. He was 86. He was the last of four sons of Gabriel Cano Villegas, heir to the family that founded El Espectador in 1887. In an obituary El Espectador.com recalled that Cano Isaza would often accompany his father at IAPA meetings, in which censorship of his newspaper was denounced. He later took up the press freedom banner and, among other achievements, was a promoter of IAPA’s Declaration of Chapultepec in 1994. His brother, Guillermo Cano Isaza, was murdered by drug traffickers’ hired assassins in 1986. “Yes, they killed my brother, they bombed us, but we are journalists,” Cano once told an American reporter in talking about his tenacious resistance in confronting threats from the drug traffickers. n

luis gabriel cano (1924-2010)

The Cano Isaza brothers (l. to r.): Fidel, Alfonso, Luis Gabriel and Guillermo. “Four Aces,” their father used to call them. Photo: El Colombiano

Martínez