CITING BILLS under discussion in Honduras and Paraguay which may contradict freedom of expression principles, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has warned of a backslide in matters of access to public information.
IAPA has also pointed to recently approved intelligence legislation in Peru that guts a previous law on public transparency.
On the other hand, IAPA has praised the positive regional trend towards changing the "secretive culture of the State" for a more open position on access to public information to the benefit of all citizens. At this time countries that have access laws are Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
IAPA has also cautioned that new proposals should establish international standards of openness, transparency and freedom of expression and uphold the principles of the Declaration of Chapuletpec, a document that was drafted in 1994 and since then used by the IAPA to promote free access to public information. The document's Article 3 declares: "The authorities must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and reasonable manner the information generated by the public sector."
MODIFY SHORTCOMINGS
Following the lead of the Peruvian Press Council, the IAPA urged Peruvian lawmakers to modify the shortcomings in the National Intelligence System Law approved last week by Congress in accordance with the constitutional principles on access that were established in the Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information (Law 27806), enacted in 2002. By adding new categories and timelines in the name of national security for classified information, the IAPA believes this new intelligence law poses a serious threat to the creation of government transparency that was the purpose of the 2002 law.
Gonzalo Marroquin, chairman of the Press Freedom and Information Committee, warned, "We must exercise the utmost caution with these bills because we have seen how the rights of access become empty under the limitations and exemptions that are invariably attached when the law is regulated, as in Panama, or, as just demonstrated in Peru, where significant progress gained over the past two years was erased."
