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FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN THE AMERICAS CANNOT BE CHARACTERIZED AS FULL AND FREE OF OBSTACLES ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR APPROVED BY THE IACHR

Washington, D.C.-The annual report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for 2003, approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), states that "[i]n 2003, the exercise of freedom of thought and expression in the hemisphere continued to experience the same kind of problems that have been mentioned by the Rapporteurship in recent years." The report concludes that freedom of expression in the Americas cannot be characterized as full and free of obstacles.

The Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur constitutes the third volume of the respective annual report of the Commission. The IACHR announced yesterday the presentation of the document to the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS).

As in previous years, this volume includes an evaluation of the situation of freedom of expression in the countries that make up the OAS. The report emphasizes that Cuba continues to be the country where one can categorically affirm that there is no freedom of expression, particularly taking into account the detention and sentencing of journalists in the past year.

"Vigorous debate and criticism of government action through the press is found in several countries of the hemisphere, but in Venezuela, Haiti, and Guatemala one finds attacks on critical journalists and media that appear to be motivated by such positions," notes the evaluation of the Office of the Special Rapporteur of the events of 2003.

The report also mentions that seven social communicators were assassinated last year as a result of their work.

Additionally, judicial actions continued to be used in ways that could have a dissuasive effect on the exercise of freedom of expression. Criminal proceedings against those who express themselves critically regarding issues of public interest, whether using "desacato" (insult or contempt of public officials) laws, or laws criminalizing libel, slander, defamation, persist in the Hemisphere, as illustrated by the cases mentioned in this report.

In addition, this year's report includes a chapter on access to public information, in compliance with the Resolution AG/Res. 1932 adopted by the XXXIII General Assembly of the OAS, held in Santiago, Chile in June of 2003. In that resolution, the States recommended that the IACHR, through its Office of the Special Rapporteur, carry out an evaluation of the situation of this right in the Member States of the Organization.

The report devotes a chapter to the discriminatory allocation of official publicity as an indirect means to sanction media that express criticism and another chapter to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to freedom of expression. It also offers a summary of the cases processed by the organs of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights during 2003.

The Rapporteurship is grateful for the collaboration of those States that submitted information to the Office for the development of this report, particularly when in response to specific requests from the Office. The Office of the Special Rapporteur clarifies that some responses were not included because they were received after the IACHR's approval of the report; however, these will be taken into account in future studies. The Office of the Special Rapporteur encourages all States to submit the requested information. Finally, the Office of the Special Rapporteur thanks the nongovernmental organizations, journalists, and other individuals for the information they provided.

Reference: PREN-101