MADRID, Spain.- The new Index Chapultepec 2022 ranking qualified Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela as the three countries with the least freedom of the press in Latin America, based on a study carried out between August 2, 2021 and August 1, 2022.
The list was presented this Friday at one of the sessions of the 78th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) that began on October 27 in Madrid and will run until October 30.
Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba are in positions 22, 21 and 20 respectively and are the only ones that fall within the category of countries “without freedom of expression”, reported the EFE Agency.
In addition, they are the only nations that also present three of the four parameters that are analyzed: violence and impunity, control of the media by governments, informed population, and freedom of expression.
“These countries have laws that disfavor freedom of expression, promote censorship and even attack the external support of independent media,” said Argelia Perozo, a professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University of Venezuela (UCAB), during the presentation of the report.
This Thursday, at the inauguration of the meeting it was denounced that violence is “one of the worst challenges” of journalism in Latin America.
The president of the IAPA, Honduran Jorge Canahuati, pointed out that Cuba and Nicaragua “have become major exporters of journalists in exile.” Likewise, he referred to free and independent journalism as “the most reliable lifeline of democracy and the common good,” and called on the media to continue working to neutralize authoritarian rulers.
For her part, Gabriela Cañas, president of the EFE Agency, called for “more effective solidarity” with the media that sees their freedom of expression coerced and called for “joining efforts in verifying news”, since it is “essential to spread the truth. ”.
Tawfik Jelassi, deputy director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), pointed out that Latin America and the Caribbean are among the most dangerous regions for journalists; despite the fact that “the exercise of journalism in the Americas is extremely important to hold governments accountable in this digital age.”
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