Worldwide Rejection of Protection of Religion Campaign

More than 180 rights organizations worldwide have banded together to oppose a "defamation of religions" campaign at the UN mounted by Islamic states that would make criticizing religion a crime in UN resolutions, declarations and world conferences.

Most recently, Pakistan, on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), tabled a resolution on "combating defamation of religions" at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council. Although the text refers frequently to protecting all religions, the only religion specified as being attacked is Islam. The resolution is to be put to a vote on the last day of the session, 27 March.

OIC, an intergovernmental organisation comprising 57 states with majority or significant Muslim populations, has stepped up its fight for the concept of religious defamation to be added to UN resolutions since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Pressure to protect religions from defamation has been growing, especially since the Danish cartoons controversy in 2005.

IFEX members, such as Freedom House, which co-organised the joint statement, have campaigned extensively against the growing trend of using religious anti-defamation laws to limit free speech.

They argue that religious believers have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of their beliefs and are protected as such in international law. But they cannot expect their religion to be free from criticism.

Plus, the 186 signatories say, the resolutions "may be used in certain countries to silence and intimidate human rights activists, religious dissenters, and other independent voices," as well as to legitimise archaic anti-blasphemy laws, which surprisingly, are still on the books of many EU member states.

The signatories expressed fear that the defamation of religions concept, which they say has no basis in domestic or international law, will be resurrected in other venues, including the follow-up world conference against racism, dubbed Durban II, to be held in Geneva in April.

The 186 groups are calling upon all governments to oppose the resolution at the Human Rights Council this week, as well as any outcomes at the Durban review conference that directly or indirectly supports the defamation of religions campaign "at the expense of basic freedoms and individual human rights."

Warning: Your Computer May Be Infiltrated by a 'Ghost'

And the "ghosts" doing the infiltrating come almost exclusively from China.

In the first detection ever of a massive intrusion of computers, a team of scientists from the University of Toronto has determined that "a vast spying operation" has infiltrated hundreds of computers throughout the world, including those of the Dalai Lama.

The researchers from the university's Munk Center for International Studies have tracked down the "malware," and almost every time the source turned out to be from China. 

The spying operation, which the scientists call "GhostNet," stole hundreds of documents from computers belonging to both government and private organizations, including offices of the Dalai Lama throughout the world.

The New York Times:

[The researchers'] sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.

The researchers, who have a record of detecting computer espionage, said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information.

The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected.

(...)

Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, “Tracking ‘GhostNet’: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.” They said they had found no evidence that United States government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated.

The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.

The director of the Munk Center's Citizen Lab, Ronald Deibert, participated in the World Press Freedom Committee's Beijing Olympics: Championing Press Freedom conference held in Paris in April of 2008. In his lecture, he warned that China had become "the world's most active filterer of Internet content."

Could it be that China is also the largest Internet spy on the planet?

WPFC Letter to Uruguayan Congress

The World Press Freedom Committee sent a letter to the House of Representatives of the Uruguayan General Assembly to urge one if its committees to once and for all approve a bill that would eliminate insult laws and decriminalize defamation ones.

 

The bill, introduced in July by President Tabaré Vázquez (above), was passed later in the year by the Senate. Only two Latin American countries, El Salvador and Mexico, have decriminalized defamation laws.

Here is the full letter:

March 27, 2009

Constitution, Policies, General Legislation and Administration Committee
House of Representatives
General Assembly of Uruguay
Legislative Palace
Montevideo, Uruguay

To the attention of Representatives Javier Salsamendi, Beatriz Argimón, Gustavo Bernini, Gustavo Borsari, Diego Cánepa, Luis Alberto Lacalle, Alvaro Lorenzo, Edgardo Ortuño and Jorge Orrico.

Distinguished Representatives:

The World Press Freedom Committee (www.wpfc.org) —an organization representing 44 press freedom groups from throughout the world— expresses its great concern about the current stagnation of a bill to eliminate insult laws and to decriminalize criminal defamation ones, which has already been passed by the Senate, especially now that this initiative is about to lose its legislative validity.

The bill, introduced in July by President Tabaré Vázquez, would eliminate the crime of insult, whether written or spoken, and expressly states that no one shall be punished for expressing his or her discrepancies with a public official. Also, the crimes of insulting the national symbols and attacks against the honor of foreign heads of state shall be eliminated.

The initiative would correctly decriminalize defamation when those expressions refer to “issues of public interest involving both public officials and public persons who, because of their profession or activity, enjoy a social relevancy or any person who has chosen to be involved in public affairs.”

The bill also respects the concept of real malice as a fundamental standard to evaluate these matters, which would also protect inaccurate expressions by “considering the real will of a person to aggravate or violate the privacy of another person.”

The legislative project is the result of a friendly agreement finalized on September of 2007 between the Uruguayan State and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights about the criminal defamation conviction against journalist Carlos Dogliani, initiated in your country in 2004 by the mayor of the town of Paysandú.

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the right to a person’s honor limits the right to free expression. Also, the magistrates dictated that the factual base of the information was not a relevant aspect of the defense and that even an accurate piece of information can constitute defamation.

The inter-American system rightly agreed that Mr. Dogliani was the victim of a great injustice and following a long process, the Uruguayan State agreed to a profound reform of its laws according to the Commission’s guidelines.

Five years have gone by since this sad process started, and the promises of reform by the State are still stuck in your prestigious House of Representatives.

Insult laws constitute an effective weapon of intimidation and repression of the free flow of ideas and expressions. These laws are the legacy of a colonial or autocratic past that found their origins in the Roman Empire, which created them to shield the emperor from the criticism of the people.

Criminal defamation laws constitute a veritable Damocles sward dangling over the heads of Uruguayan journalists, who risks their freedom or livelihood or both merely by fulfilling their duty of keeping the public informed, as it was the case of Mr. Dogliani.

Both sets of laws present a clear challenge to the recommendations and jurisprudence of the inter-American system of justice, which has concluded that insult laws must be completely eliminated from the legislation of member states and that criminal defamation statutes should be part of civil codes, and never criminal ones.

Therefore, Messrs. and Ms. Representatives, we urge you —before the bill loses its parliamentary validity— to approve it as soon as possible so that Uruguay can be integrated into the growing community of nations who view these laws as a certain challenge against freedom of expression and of the press, second only in severity to physical threats or attacks on the news media.


Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee

CC: To the members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists

Inter American Press Association

International Association of Broadcasting

International Federation of the Periodical Press

International Press Institute

North American Broadcasters Association

World Association of Newspapers

World Press Freedom Committee

 

No, You May Not Have the Next Dance

Afghan censors have just had it with local Emrose TV network and its daring contortions around the country's decency laws.

In a country formerly dominated by a Medieval tribe, the Taliban, which forces women to cover every inch of their bodies with the infamous burqa, images of ladies dancing and wearing short skirts still triggers rising tempests of dissent.

And the latest victim of a renewed wave of Puritanical fervor, incited by the latest resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, has been Fahim Khodamani, whose Enrose TV "salacious" images have cost him an arrest for "airing prohibited and hypocritical anti-Islam programs and immoral scenes and movies," as reported by the International Herald Tribune.

"Since the Taliban fell, television stations have flourished, pitting the issue of freedom of the press against conservative norms in a country where most women wear clothes that cover everything but their face and neck.

(...)

The Afghan culture minister has warned that the Taliban use racy broadcasts like those on Emrose as a tool in their culture war, recruiting villagers who feel that the government is too influenced by Western morals.

Aggressive Afghan government attempts to censor TV programs could be part of a strategy to temper conflict with the Taliban. Or it could be an attempt to siphon support from Afghans drawn to the Taliban's conservative style of Islam.

Many Afghan TV stations cut or blur scenes with women showing more than their face or neck, taking a conservative stance to avoid violating a vague government law that prohibits media content not "within the framework of Islam."

The Emrose manager was arrested for refusing repeated requests to pixelate or otherwise obscure images of women dancing in short skirts or outfits with low necklines, said the deputy attorney general, Fazel Ahmad Faqiyar.

Khodamani will be arrested for at least 15 days until the inquiry into his activities is completed. Or as one of his shows would put it, until the bare truth comes to light.

China's Detention Centers, Hell on Earth

A China Daily newspaper exposé unveils the living hell on earth that China's thousands of pretrial detention centers really are, including the death of prisoners under very questionable circumstances and police rackets operating the facilities for huge profits.

Two handcuffed inmates talk to each other at a
detention center in Shenzhen , Southern China.
(EPA photo)

The article reports that since Feb. 8, eight inmates waiting for trial have died under custody, prompting their relatives to challenge the authorities' less than credible justifications.

The paper, which is distributed only to international audiences, also quotes sources alleging that the police units in charge run the detention centers as torture chambers for profit aiming at getting confessions as soon as possible to make room for other potential inmates. A source calls this racket "the most profitable piece of [the police forces'] territory."

The New York Times:

Detention centers drew widespread attention at home and abroad last month after an inmate in Yunnan Province, Li Qiaoming, 24, charged with illegal logging, died of brain injuries. Officials first said he had hit his head while playing a hide-and-seek game in which the seeker is blindfolded. An investigation revealed that he had been beaten to death by three other inmates, and six police officials at the center were dismissed or punished.

Since then, six other inmates have died in custody, including an 18-year-old from Hunan Province who local Communist Party officials said became unwell while being interrogated.

Police officials have said that three inmates died of illness. But in one of those cases, family members say, the body of a Hebei Province inmate said to have died of pneumonia had bruises and a broken tooth, evidence of beating. The other two cases remain in dispute.

During its meeting this month, the party-controlled legislature, the National People’s Congress, established a committee to investigate the centers. It recently conducted surprise inspections in Liaoyuan, a city in Jilin Province, the newspaper reported.

But in the article, the experts said the only way to sharply reduce abuses was to remove detention centers from local police control. “That has always been strongly resisted by police departments,” Hou Xinyi, deputy dean of the law school at Nankai University in Tianjin, was quoted as saying. The police “complain such a reform will not help their investigations and the crackdown on crime,” he said.

Amnesty International contended in a March 20 statement that the problems in the detention centers were symptoms of a larger lack of accountability and fairness in the justice system, in part because inmates often had little access to lawyers or even family visits. Amnesty urged the Chinese government to change its criminal procedure law to impose an explicit ban on the use of confessions obtained through torture or ill treatment.

Daily China also quotes legislators calling for urgent reforms to this shameful detention scheme.

Senator Tries to Rescue US Newspaper Industry

It's very well documented the historically devastating crisis the US newspaper industry is going through. Newspapers are dropping like flies throughout the United States, and the bleeding won't stop.

But there seems to be at least one US senator who thinks a solution could come from Washington to try and put an end to this "real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."

Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin introduced legislation that would consider newspapers in the United States as non-profit operations, with all the tax breaks that that would entail for the struggling industry.

The Wall Street Journal:

Under the proposal, newspapers could operate as nonprofits, if they chose to do so, claiming 501(c)(3) status for educational purposes, similar to public broadcasting.

'It is in the interest of our nation and good governance that we ensure [that newspapers] survive.'

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage or operations could be tax-deductible.

Nonprofit-status newspapers would not be allowed to make political endorsements but would be allowed to freely report on all issues, including political campaigns.

In a statement, Cardin acknowledged that consumers now have many other sources for news but said the public relies on newspapers "for in-depth reporting that follows important issues, records events and exposes misdeeds. In fact, most if not all sources of journalistic information ... gather their news from newspaper reporters who cover the news on a daily basis ... It is in the interest of our nation and good governance that we ensure [that newspapers] survive."

The initiative would be able to protect local newspapers serving smaller cities and towns but not the large publishing houses that own several publications throughout the country.

The article goes on to say that up to 2000, US newspapers were able to turn profits of up to 30 percent because of their extremely attractive classified sections. But the Internet, with services like Craigslist and Monster.com, are now offering consumers nation-wide range for little or no money. Also, millions of former newspaper buyers have migrated to Internet editions, which are much less profitable.

Add to that the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the end result is a collapse of epic proportions.

China Blocks YouTube Access

The Chinese government has completely blocked access to YouTube bringing down the traffic to that site to zero.

Apparently the culprit is a video attributed by the Chinese official news agency Xinghua to the Dali Lama, in which riot police are shown beating Tibetans during last year's uprising.

The New York Times:

The agency did not identify the video, but based on its description, it appears to match a video, available on YouTube, that was released by the Tibetan government in exile recently. It purports to show police storming a monastery after riots in Lhasa last March, kicking and beating protesters. It includes graphical images of a protester’s wounds.

“We don’t know the reason for the block,” a YouTube spokesman, Scott Rubin, said. “Our government relations people are trying to resolve it.”

Mr. Rubin said that the company first noticed traffic from China had decreased dramatically late Monday. By early Tuesday, it had dropped to nearly zero, he said.

China routinely filters Internet content and blocks material that is critical of its policies. It also frequently blocks individual videos from YouTube. Access to YouTube had been intermittent earlier in March, on the first anniversary of protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule.

“The instant speculation is that YouTube is being blocked because the Tibetan government in exile released a particular video,” said Xiao Qiang, adjunct professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and editor of China Digital Times, a news Web site that chronicles political and economic changes in China.

Mr. Xiao said that the blocking of YouTube fits in with an apparent effort by China to step up its censorship of the Internet in recent months. Mr. Xiao said he was not surprised that YouTube, which also hosts videos about the Tiananmen Square protests, whose 20th anniversary is coming up, and many other subjects that Chinese authorities find objectionable, is being targeted.

No word whether the blocking has anything to do with the grass-mud horse controversy, the Charter 08 dissidents, the regime's compiling a journalist black list or any other of the myriad of reasons China feels compelled by to crank up its censoring machine.

WPFC Letter to Sudanese President Protesting Jailing of Journalist

World Press Freedom Committee Executive Director Mark Bench sent the following letter to Sudan's President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir protesting the incarceration of Alhaj Warrag, editor-in-chief of the Ajras El-Hurriyya independent newspaper.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.
(EPA Photo)

Warrag was arrested and jailed under very suspicious circumstances on March 19 after he announced his plans to travel to Germany. The following letter was faxed to the Khartoum Presidential Palace and the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. It was also distributed to media outlets and press freedom groups throughout the world.

March 24, 2009

His Excellency Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
President of the Republic of the Sudan
Presidential Palace
Khartoum, Sudan

Your Excellency:

The World Press Freedom Committee (www.wpfc.org) —an umbrella organization representing 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world— expresses its profound concern for the fate of Alhaj Warrag, editor-in-chief of Ajras El-Hurriyya independent newspaper, who was arrested on March 19 and taken into custody as part of an abusive court procedure.

Ajras El-Hurriyya is one of the very few independent publications in Sudan, one that has strived to offer different points of view about the country’s most pressing issues. But this has come at a high cost. Mr. Warrag and his staff have been subject to frequent harassment and intimidation by government agents, and their publication has been regularly censored by the authorities. On March 19, the newspaper had to cancel its print edition because of an article that censors found too uncomfortable.

In past weeks, Mr. Warrag has been trying to fulfill his judicial obligations as prescribed by a criminal defamation process that dates back to 2007. After the pertinent court authorities told him there was no rush to complete the process, he decided to postpone these bureaucratic procedures. On March 19, however, after he announced his plans to travel to Germany, he was arrested, taken to prison and told he will not be released until he fulfills his court obligations, including the payment of a fine.

Arresting a journalist because of his professional activity is a serious attack not only on his fundamental human rights, including press freedom, but also on his audience who thus are deprived of important information about issues of public interest. By keeping him in prison, you also hold his audience hostage to an arbitrary decision that threatens fundamental democratic principles.

The harassment and illegal detention of members of the media represent grave violations of fundamental human rights postulates enshrined not only in the Sudanese Constitution but also in international covenants, such as the African Convention on Human and Peoples' Rights and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), of which your country is signatory.

Article 19 of the UDHR states:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Your Excellency, your country is still reeling from the dire consequences of one of the longest, most devastating armed conflicts in Africa’s history. Sudan’s international reputation is at its all-time low just when the country is in dire need of foreign aid and assistance to tackle its very grave problems. In these critical times, a free and independent media that seeks the truth and duly informs the public constitutes a critical component of any dreams of recovery.

Therefore, we urge you to exercise your executive influence to start the process that grants the immediate release and exoneration of Mr. Warrag and to put in place the necessary measures that will allow a free and independent media to fulfill its duty to keep the public informed in your country.

Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee

CC: To the members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists

Inter American Press Association

International Association of Broadcasting

International Federation of the Periodical Press

International Press Institute

North American Broadcasters Association

World Association of Newspapers

World Press Freedom Committee

WPFC letter to Zimbabwean PM Protesting Criminal Defamation Charges

What follows is a letter by WPFC Executive Director Mark Bench to Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai protesting the criminal defamation charges against three staff members of the Bulawayo Chronicle, reporter Nduduzo Tshuma, editor Brezhnev Malaba and publisher Sithembile Ncube:

March 23, 2009

Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai
Prime Minister
c/o Dr. Machivenyika Mapuranga
Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States
1608 New Hampshire Ave.
Washington, DC  20009
USA

cc: President Robert Mugabe, Finance Minister Mr. Tendai Biti

Dear Prime Minister:

We have learned with alarm and concern that the Editor of the Bulawayo Chronicle, Brezhnev Malaba, a reporter on his staff, Nduduzo Tshuma, and Zimpapers Bulawayo branch General Manager Sithembile Ncube, have been charged with criminal defamation and breaches of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act over a news article published last month that exposed allegations of corruption at the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB).

The criminal defamation charge, according to reports in the Chronicle, relates to a reference in the story to an unidentified ":senior police officer'' being "the protector'' of the GMB manager. The offences under the Criminal Law Act are under a section which deals with the publication of "falsehoods'' and Section 30 that deals with "bringing disaffection'' to the police.

Criminal defamation and criminal offences relating to the publication of "falsehoods'' or which result in "disaffection'' of the police are discredited in established democracies and have no place in a country such as Zimbabwe which strives to be counted as a democracy.

In any case, the report published by the Chronicle does not by any stretch fall under such highly questionable laws. Nor have the police initiated an investigation into the serious allegations of corruption contained in the story which quotes millers accusing GMB official of diverting maize supplies to the black market while cheating hungry villagers by offering a few bags of grain in exchange for livestock.

It seems that in charging the newspaper's staff the police are taking  "legal'' action against the newspaper to punish it for what has been published and to prevent more details of corruption allegations from being exposed.

Shortly after taking office, you committed your government to review unjust media laws which have stifled freedom of expression and the operation of a free media in Zimbabwe. We have also noted with approval the special emphasis your government's new (March 2009) Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP) has given to the essential need for media freedom and freedom of expression to be pursued in the country's recovery —listed in the introduction to the programme as a key priority, second only to the Constitution and constitution-making processes.

Our view is that the extra-judicial conduct of the Bulawayo police against the Chronicle's editor and staff clearly violates STERP in relation to the media. The conduct of the police is highly damaging to the new government in Zimbabwe -- and to your efforts to find solutions to your country's ills.

We believe that unless the spurious charges against the editor and his staff are withdrawn immediately, people will question the new Zimbabwe government's dedication to its professed intentions as outlined in STERP. The bona fides of the new government are at stake.

We make this earnest appeal that your government institute an immediate inquiry into the conduct of the Bulawayo police against the Chronicle and a further probe into the allegations raised by the Chronicle story into the operations of the GMB, while immediately withdrawing the unfounded charges against the paper.

We are copying this letter to President Robert Mugabe because we believe that he, too, will recognise the dangers the actions of the Bulawayo police pose for the new government, particularly in view of his recent appeal to "friends of Zimbabwe'' to come to its aid. Actions like the police conduct against the Chronicle could well serve as justifications for continuation of sanctions against Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United States.

Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee

CC: To the members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists

Inter American Press Association

International Association of Broadcasting

International Federation of the Periodical Press

International Press Institute

North American Broadcasters Association

World Association of Newspapers

World Press Freedom Committee

WPFC Urges Ecuadorian President to Decriminalize Defamation

What follows if WPFC Executive Director Mark Bench's letter to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado urging him to decriminalize defamation laws. The letter focuses on the cases of two journalists, Milton Chacaguasay and Fredy Aponte, who where sentenced to prison on criminal defamation charges.

 
Reporter Milton Chacaguasay is
serving his 10-month
sentence in a Quito prison.

The letter was also sent to Ecuadorian media and press freedom forces from throughout the world:

March 23, 2009

His Excellency Rafael Correa Delgado
President of the Republic
Presidential Palace
Quito, Ecuador

Your Excellency,

The World Press Freedom Committee —an organization representing 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world— expresses its profound rejection for the juridical harassment two Ecuadorian journalists are the victims of, Milton Nelson Chacaguasay Flores, currently serving a 10-month prison sentence, and Fredy Aponte Aponte, who was released from prison on Jan. 28 after serving three of the six months of his sentence.

Both journalists are suffering the outrageous punishments that are inherent to Ecuador’s criminal defamation laws, which are applied in cases of alleged crimes of opinion to journalists unjustly prosecuted because of their professional activity. Because of these laws, any Ecuadorian journalist risks to be treated like a mere criminal because of the profession they chose. The existence of these laws, a veritable Damocles sward dangling over the country’s right to press freedom, flatly rejects the spirit and the letter of international treaties of which your country is signatory.

Mr. Chacaguasay, editor-in-chief of La Verdad weekly magazine, is serving a ten-month prison sentence in the Provisional Detention Center in Quito as part of a sentence for criminal defamation pressed by local judge Silvio Castillo. The charges stem from an advertising published by La Verdad and paid for by a third party in which Judge Castillo is accused of fraud.

Mr. Aponte, reporter of Radio Luz y Vida, was sentenced to six months in prison, of which he served three before an early release, because of “verbal aggression” charges pressed by former Loja Mayor José Bolívar Castillo, who was insulted by an interview conducted by the defendant in which he claims he was allegedly accused of being a thief. Even though there is no evidence that such a word was uttered in the interview and that Mr. Aponte Aponte’s case was first thrown out by a local court, he too was eventually treated like a mere criminal and put in jail by an appeals court.

In both cases, the defendants insist they are victims of revenge by two public officials who felt too uncomfortable with the journalists’ work.

Whatever the reasons, the fact that Ecuadorian journalists gamble with their freedom every time they fulfill their duty to inform the public is in direct contradiction with the basic press freedom postulates enunciated by Article 18 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, as follows:

"All persons, both individually and collectively, shall have the right to seek, receive, exchange, produce and disseminate information that is truthful, verified, timely, contextualized, plural and without previous censorship."

Also, Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights partly reads as follows:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference."

Both the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights support the concept that public officials should expect more, and not less, scrutiny and criticism from the rest of society. This acceptance of being a willing target of the media’s slings and arrows also implies public officials should restrain themselves from invoking these laws in order to silence criticism directed at them.

Likewise, both inter-American entities maintain that defamation laws belong in civil, and not criminal, codes because the penalties imposed by the latter on alleged crimes of opinion are exaggerated and constitute an undue obstacle to the free flow of ideas and to the concept of press freedom.

The imprisonments of Messrs. Chacaguasay and Aponte leave no doubts in the minds of the rest of Ecuador’s journalists that such a Damocles sward is not only a threat by a potent weapon against press freedom in your country. Without a free and independent press, public officials and corporate executives cannot be kept accountable to the rest of society. Without this essential ingredient, transparency and good governance become impossible to achieve.

Therefore, your Excellency, our Committee urges you to take the necessary legislative measures to begin a process of decriminalization of defamation laws, calumny and libel that will allow journalism in your country to fulfill its duties free of any obstacles.

Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee

CC: To the members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists

Inter American Press Association

International Association of Broadcasting

International Federation of the Periodical Press

International Press Institute

North American Broadcasters Association

World Association of Newspapers

World Press Freedom Committee