By Maira Magro
Journalists and civil society representatives convened for the “Second Platform for Action to Strengthen Freedom of Expression in Central America,” where they identified the principal challenges for exercising this right and listed initiatives to promote it throughout the region.
The resulting document (PDF), published this week by the NGO Article 19, lists as obstacles: aggression against journalists, criminalization of community media vehicles, the lack of access to public information, telecommunication laws that contravene international standards, and inadequate governmental responses to violations against freedom of expression.
Members of the Platform agreed to monitor compliance with existing access to public information laws, to promote telecommunication laws that encourage diverse content and a plurality of voices, and to denounce aggression against journalists, community media, and human rights defenders. The encounter occurred on April 22-23 in San Salvador, with participants from El Salvador, Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
