MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
MAKING
DEMOCRACY WORK BETTER
Third Summit of the Americas,
Quebec City, Canada 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
|
Media and Communications
Making Democracy Work Better
|
|
|
|
Nothing that access to existing and
emerging information and communications technologies has an
increasingly significant impact on the lives of individuals and
offers important opportunities for democratic development, and
that the media has an important role to play in promoting a
democratic culture:
-
Ensure the media is free from
arbitrary interventions by the state, and specifically, work
to remove legal or regulatory impediments to media access by
registered political parties including by facilitating,
where possible, equitable access during election campaigns
to television and radio;
-
Encourage cooperation among
public and private broadcasters, including cable operators,
and independent broadcast regulatory bodies and governmental
organizations, in order to facilitate the exchange of best
industry practices and technologies at the hemispheric
level, to guarantee free, open and independent media;
-
Encourage media
self-regulation efforts, including norms of ethical conduct,
to address the concerns of civil society with regard to,
inter alia, reducing the dissemination of extreme violence
and negative stereotypes of women and ethnic, social and
other groups, contributing in this way to the promotion of
changes in attitudes and cultural patterns through the
projection of pluralistic, balanced and non-discriminatory
images;
|
|
|
|
Quebec
Plan of Action (complete version):
English |
Spanish |
French |
Portuguese |
|
Archive of Events that have taken place in the area of Media and
Communications
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
|
Hemispheric Summit of Justice and Freedom of
the Press in the Americas June 20-22, 2002
(Washington DC) |
|
|
|
The
Inter-American
Press Association (IAPA) organized the Hemispheric Summit of
Justice and Freedom of the Press in Washington DC, from June
20-22, 2002. Over forty Supreme Court judges and dozens of
journalists participated in the Summit, creating a dialogue
between judges and journalists on the issues of freedom of the
press and expression in the Americas. The Summit addressed the
conflicts that both judges and journalists face when disclosing
information and stressed the necessity for both judicial
independence and freedom of the press in supporting democracy. The
Summit was attended by journalists from throughout the Americas
and justices from the Supreme Courts of the following countries:
Argentina, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Bolivia, Canada,
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, and Uruguay.
|
|
|
|
.
|
Political Database of the Americas
|
|
|
|
The UPD and Georgetown University have worked jointly to
introduce the new Political Database of the Americas. This free
access database has information about political constitutions,
electoral systems, political parties, and on the three branches of
power (executive, legislative and judicial). It can be accessed
through the following address:
www.georgetown.edu/pdba
|
|
|
|
.
|
The Press in Latin America
April 4, 2002 |
|
|
|
An editorial in the New York Times
on April 4, 2002 highlighted the contributions of the Organization
of American States in ensuring the freedom of the press in Latin
America. The article spoke about the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission (CIDH) and Court, and the decisions that have been
taken to reverse unjust judicial decisions against journalists in
their countries. This topic connects directly to the III Summit
of the Americas, which ensures that the media is free from
arbitrary interventions by the state, and specifically, works to
remove legal or regulatory impediments to media access by
registered political parties. To read this article, please see
the website
www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/opinion/_04THU3.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|