The Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency (SCSP) reversed the new provisions for the entry of the press to the activities that take place in the National Palace of Culture, and which had been established with the argument that “the lives of the personnel” who work in that building have been violated, after a person posing as a journalist attempted to enter the building with a firearm on July 18.
Yesterday, in a statement, the SCSP reported that the accreditation mechanism has been suspended.
“The purpose of this measure was to facilitate and expedite the entry and identification of all journalists, without exception, who cover the Executive Branch’s news, as well as to guarantee the safety of all persons who come together at the facilities of the National Palace,” he explained.
He also said that the decision was made to suspend the measure “to avoid any misinterpretation” in this regard, and that the process of review and inspection by security personnel at the headquarters of the Executive will continue.
The suspended provisions established that in addition to the aforementioned review of the communicators and the Press badge that identifies the media outlet for which they work, they must carry another additional badge, issued by the SCSP, as well as their personal identification document (DPI).
Journalists had to wait to be attended to by institutional staff, who would verify that they complied with the issued provisions, and then be accompanied to the place assigned for the activity. However, for journalists and representatives of chambers, these actions lend themselves to discretionary determination of who can enter the conferences and activities of the Presidency.
Against
For the president of the Board of Directors of the Association of Journalists of Guatemala (APG), Ana Julieta Cárdenas, article 35 of the Political Constitution of the Republic is clear in stating that access to sources of public information is free, and “There should be no censorship.”
Cárdenas says that they are not against the security that must prevail in the National Palace of Culture and in other public institutions. However, he believes that other measures can be taken without limiting access to information, and requested a meeting with the Secretary of Social Communication, Santiago Palomo.
“This is to make it clear that Article 35 cannot be modified just like that. Freedom of expression is not only for journalists, but for the general population,” he said.
The president of the APG regretted that there are people who “infiltrate” as reporters in public activities and “put at risk” the profession, so together with the Presidential Commission on Human Rights They are working on creating a bill to protect journalists.
“Measures must be taken to determine who are really journalists. The problem is that people who claim to be influencers issue badges to accredit themselves as journalists. There are deputies who claim to have means of expression, but social networks are not -formal- means of communication,” he explained.
Classification
Constitutional analyst Aquiles Faillace believes that this could be a strategy to “classify” the media and thus avoid questions.
“They want to choose friendly media and leave out the enemy ones. They will want to publish news only about them, and that is a bad precedent.“he said, before learning of the suspension of the measure.
Fallace maintains that anyone who has a press badge from an accredited media outlet can enter, and if they do not belong to a media outlet It can be endorsed by the APG or the Guatemalan Chamber of Journalism.
“What if they don’t cover what the president says and then people will wonder what he does?” he says.
Constitutional right
The Guatemalan Chamber of Media had also issued a statement in which it expressed its disagreement with the new measures of the SCSP, highlighting that it was an “arbitrary” provision to require journalists to be holders of “a card issued” by said secretariat “to enter the National Palace and the sources of information that exist there.”
The provision, according to the ruling, violated access to freedom of expression of thought and the Political Constitution of the Republic, and cite Article 35which states: “The expression of thought is free through any means of diffusion, without censorship or prior license. This constitutional right may not be restricted by any law or government provision.”
“No official is above the law. We respectfully request the President of the Republic, Dr. Bernardo Arévalo de León, to annul this unnecessary provision to limit journalists’ entry to the National Palace, issued by a Secretary of the Republic, in clear contravention of what has been expressed on different occasions by the President who has invited journalists and the people in general to visit the Government Palace as it is an institution of the people,” he emphasized.
For his part, Mario Fuentes Destarac, former dean of Law and former president of the Bar Association, said that requiring the wearing of a SCSP badge is forcing a journalist to belong to or integrate “a conglomerate,” and “is not consistent” with resolutions issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Constitutional Court (CC).
“The Constitutional Court issued a resolution on July 12, 2002, in which it indicates that there is no obligation to join a professional association to be a journalist. By requiring a card issued by a public entity, it forces the journalist to belong to a conglomerate, -therefore- “The request made by the Secretariat of Social Communication is inappropriate,” he said.
In 1985, the Costa Rican government asked the IACHR for an opinion on whether it was mandatory for journalists to become members of a professional association, as could be interpreted in Article 13, Freedom of Thought and Expression, of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) and in Costa Rican laws.
In its ruling, the Court held that mandatory membership of journalists is incompatible with Article 13 of the ACHR, since it restricts access to the media as a vehicle for exercising freedom of expression, and concluded that Costa Rican regulation for that profession was incompatible with the Convention.
recommendations
Regarding the measures announced by the SCSP, Vice President Karin Herrera had said that they would analyze the situation.
“From the Vice Presidency we want to hear opportunities for improvement to the procedure and we will issue some recommendations for updating the protocol. We respect freedom of the press and We reiterate that we are an open-door institution that prioritizes the work of the press,” he said.
Carlos Jornet, president of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, saw the presidential decision as “an excess of regulation that can clearly translate into a limitation of the constitutional right” guaranteed in Article 35 to freedom of access to sources of information.
According to Jornet, behind the order to accredit journalists for coverage at the National Palace – which was later suspended – “there seems to be a hidden intention to enter permits for “refuse the entry of journalists who are critical or who are not to the ruler’s liking”.
According to the SIP representative, this excess of regulations and conditions for coverage contradicts the principle of avoiding all discrimination and is closer to “a mechanism of rewards and punishments.”
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