Former presidents of Latin America and Spain reject “stigmatization of the press” of the Government of Petro

2023-06-18 03:20:26

A group of former presidents from Latin America, Spain and Canada presented a joint declaration to refer to the “stigmatization of the press by the Colombian government”, headed by President Gustavo Petro.

The former presidents who signed the declaration are part of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), an international non-governmental forum that seeks to strengthen Ibero-American and international solidarity in favor of democracy, the rule of law, and the guarantee and effective and universal protection of human rights.

“We consider it our duty to pay in favor of the right to freedom of thought and expression, the backbone of democracy; This is due to the worrying aggressive, disqualifying, and stigmatizing language of journalists and social media through digital networks by the Colombian government,” says the statement signed by 19 of the 37 former presidents that make up IDEA.

In the statement, the former presidents cite part of the doctrine of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the cases sentenced against Venezuela in 2009 –(Case of RCTV, Ríos and others vs. Venezuela and Case of GLOBOVISIÓN, Perozo and others vs. Venezuela)–. “In a democratic society it is not only legitimate, but sometimes it is a duty of the state authorities, to rule on issues of public interest. However, in doing so they are subject to certain limitations in that they must reasonably, although not necessarily exhaustively, verify the facts on which they base their opinions, and they should do so with even greater diligence than that used by individuals, due to their high investiture, the wide scope and eventual effects that their expressions may have on certain sectors of the population, and to prevent citizens and other interested persons from receiving a manipulated version of certain facts.”

IDEA is an initiative promoted by concerned Venezuelans for the rupture of the constitutional and democratic order in Venezuela. Among the signing presidents of the declaration are Andrés Pastrana and Iván Duque, José María Aznar, Mauricio Macri, Lenin Moreno, Mireya Moscoso, Sebastián Piñera, among others.