Posted on Sat, Oct. 13, 2007
By GISELA SALOMON
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI --
An international press association representing media from across the
Americas accused the Venezuelan government Saturday of pressuring hotels
not to host the group's general assembly next year - an allegation the
government quickly denied.
The Inter American Press Association made the accusation on the second
day of its 63rd General Assembly, held annually to review the state of
the media in the Western Hemisphere and to promote free expression.
Despite the allegations, leaders of the group vowed Saturday at the
Miami conference to go ahead with plans to meet in Venezuela next March.
"It worries us that we perceive official pressure," said Gonzalo
Marroquin, president of the organization's press freedom committee.
"This has not happened in any other country and demonstrates pressures
and corporate self-censorship."
The IAPA complained that a number of hotels in several Venezuelan cities
rejected reservations for the group's semiannual assembly, saying they
had no vacancies for that time of year.
"There is an insurmountable wall of resistance from the Venezuelan
government," IAPA president Rafael Molina said. But he added, "We will
insist up to the point where it becomes impossible."
Asked whether such an insistence could be viewed as a provocation,
Molina dismissed the notion.
"One thing is to be welcomed by the government, and another is to be
welcomed by the people. Our mission is that the people have free access
to all types of information, and we know in that sense we are welcome,"
he said.
Venezuela Information Minister Willian Lara issued a statement calling
the allegation a "new aggression" by the press group and denying his
government had pressured any hotel chain to reject it.
He said the members of the IAPA, "capitalists of the press," censor news
contrary to their interests and "have converted their newspapers, radio
and television stations and Internet sites into propaganda machines to
oppose Bolivarian democracy with the systematic use of defamatory lies."
The Miami-based IAPA has criticized President Hugo Chavez's socialist,
Bolivarian government for what it calls efforts to limit press freedoms,
including his decision in May not to renew the license of a TV station
critical of his administration.
The move to block Radio Caracas Television, the country's oldest private
channel, from public airwaves prompted protests by opponents who called
it an attack on free expression.
Chavez accused the station of supporting a 2002 coup that briefly
removed him from power.
RCTV has since been allowed to broadcast on a cable channel.
The IAPA planned to award its Grand Prize for Press Freedom to Marcel
Granier, president of RCTV.
Venezuela is not the only country under scrutiny at the group's annual
meeting. On Sunday, delegates were expected to provide reports on the
situation for journalists in each of the association's member countries.
In the past year, eight journalists in the Americas have been murdered
and two others disappeared, according to the IAPA.
A forum on Monday was also scheduled to review the climate for the press
in Cuba and the imprisonment of independent journalists there.
Several countries have taken positive steps in the last year, Molina
said. Mexico decriminalized libel, and the Argentinean Supreme Court
ruled against a local government that engaged in a publicity campaign
against several media outlets, among other examples.
Adm. James. G. Stavridis, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, was
scheduled to address the association Saturday, but canceled due to a
family emergency, Molina said.
----
Associated Press Writer Laura Wides-Munoz contributed to this report.
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