President Luis Abinader signed the Inter American Press Association’s Declaration of Chapultepec and Salta at the Presidential Palace on Friday, 23 October 2020. The signing commits the new Dominican President to guarantee freedom of press and speech in the Dominican Republic. The 53-year old Dominican President Luis Abinader believes free press makes his government better.
In recent years, several Dominican journalists were forced to go off air or close their publications because what they reported clashed with particular interests of persons in government or business.
The signing ceremony, organized by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), was held in the Las Cariátides Hall of the Presidential Palace with the participation of Dominican media members and the president of the IAPA, Christopher Barns.
After signing both declarations, President Abinader said that free journalism is an essential part of democratic systems in the same way that the separation of powers, an independent justice system and freedom of association are.
“Journalism serves many purposes. I especially like the old and endearing definition that says it serves to form, inform and entertain. But it also guarantees the balance of power that is so necessary in a democracy, and that guarantee is materialized in criticism. Power must know that the orderly and reasoned criticism that only the media and journalists can exercise is fundamental because without it, arbitrariness, injustice and fear would soon arrive,” he said.
He maintained that independent journalism is a shield that can be counted on “to defend us, but there cannot be free, professional and independent journalism without free, professional and independent journalists who exercise their work from different and legitimate points of view with honesty and dignity.”
“As this declaration that we sign today says free press is synonymous with free expression. Where the media can emerge freely, decide on its direction and the way it serves the public, there also flourishes the possibility of seeking information, disseminating it without hindrance, questioning it without fear, and promoting the free exchange of ideas and opinions. But when, under the pretext of any objective, the freedom of the press is curtailed, the other freedoms disappear,” he said.
Abinader also called for actions to check fake news on social media. He said it is wrong to think that any person capturing images and sharing these with a mobile phone is a journalist. The person is not a journalist. He explained that a journalist will put the events in order, give them context, and check them with the sources.
The Chapultepec Declaration was born in March 1994 in Mexico City, when political leaders, writers, academics, newspaper directors and citizens from all over the Americas gathered to draft a document containing ten fundamental principles necessary for a free press to fulfill its essential role in democracy.
The document honored the memory of those journalists killed in the exercise of their duties. The Declaration of Chapultepec was adopted by the Hemisphere Conference on Free Speech held in Mexico City on 11 March 1994. According to IAPA, “a free press enables societies to resolve their conflicts, promote their wellbeing and protect their liberty. No law or act of government may limit freedom of expression or of the press, whatever the medium.”
Meanwhile, social media in the Dominican Republic leads the campaigns opposing actions of the government, many of these contrary to the electoral campaign promising change in the new government. This is the same citizen commenting that motivated most voters to elect Abinader who promised change.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
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Diario Libre
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N Digital
25 October 2020