The government is taking steps to improve and guarantee freedom of expression, as well as the work of journalists and the media, said Roberto Izurieta, from the Ministry of Communication.
Roberto Rock, member of the IAPA, greets Roberto Izurieta, Secretary of Communication after a meeting with President Daniel Noboa. Quito, March 19, 2024.
On March 19, 2024, the president, Daniel Noboa, received a delegation from the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) with whom he discussed the challenges of exercising the press and freedom of expression in environments of violence such as those in which he lives. the country.
In this context, Roberto Rock said that the IAPA made President Noboa aware of a series of concerns that should be implemented or strengthened to protect journalists and guarantee the work of the media:
- Strengthen and make operational the protection mechanism for journalists.
- Analyze a stronger response to cases of attacks on journalists and media outlets that have gone unpunished.
- Find mechanisms so that defamation and slander pass from the Penal Code to the Civil Code and thus eliminate the possibility that a journalist could be taken to jail for doing his job.
The IAPA asked the government to modify the Law on Access to Public Information to strengthen the existing one and allow, not only journalists, access to information that they consider relevant. In addition to making more expeditious claims, when obstacles are placed on access to information.
The Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, said that, although a good part of the IAPA’s concerns fall in the legislative sphere, the Noboa government is taking the necessary steps and actions to improve and guarantee freedom of expression , as well as the work of journalists and media.
At the meeting, President Daniel Noboa signed his adherence to the declarations of Chapultepec and Salta, which precisely refer to the commitment of the rulers to freedom of the press and the measures that must be adopted to guarantee this right.
