The lawyer and vice president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), Eduardo Quirós, referred this Thursday to freedom of the press and access to information, which has been threatened in the last weeks.
He stated that an important element to highlight is that this is not a battle for the freedom of the media or the owners of the media, it is the defense of freedom of expression that is divided into many rights.
“One of those fundamental rights of the citizen is access to information, the right of the citizen to choose what he wants to listen to, any station, any television channel, and it is clearly established in the Constitution,” he explained.
He remarked that the important thing is that in any collision of law it can be established which is a superior right, “and in this case the public interest, the interest of citizens, the right to access information is a right superior to the right that people have. with respect to his honor and that must be defined by the courts ”.
He said that Panama becomes one of the few countries, even in Latin America, where crimes against honor are part of the criminal jurisdiction, that is, someone can go to jail for this reason. “This is something surpassed in the countries of the region,” he added.
