US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken blasted efforts to stifle press freedom in numerous Latin American countries on Tuesday, saying the US wants to strengthen media safety in the area with the highest number of journalist deaths.
Speaking at a press freedom event before of the Summit of the Americas, a regional conference aimed at addressing economic difficulties and migration, Blinken claimed governments in the area were suppressing press freedom and intimidating journalists through broad laws and monitoring.
He has singled out Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, the three nations President Joe Biden barred from attending the Summit of the Americas because they were not democratic, claiming that independent media was a crime in those countries.
“No region in the world is more dangerous for journalists,” Blinken said, adding that at least 17 media workers have been killed this year in the Western Hemisphere, citing the UNESCO observatory for killed journalists.
Last weekend, British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira went missing in Brazil while reporting in a lawless section of the Amazon rainforest near the Peruvian border.
“Crimes like these persist in no small part because the people who order them and carry them out are so rarely held accountable. That sends a message that these attacks can continue with impunity,” Blinken said. He also criticized El Salvador.
“Governments are using sweeping legislation to quash free expression, as we saw in the recent slate of amendments adopted by El Salvador in March and April of this year,” Blinken said.
El Salvador recorded 62 killings in a single day in March, the worst day since the country’s civil war ended in 1992. As a result, the Legislative Assembly, which is dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s right-wing populist party, announced a state of emergency, suspending residents’ fundamental rights.
Press freedom is an unalienable human right. Freedom of the press has been defined as the right to have opinions, research, and receive and publish information by whatever means since its enshrinement (Article 19) in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, from its initial formal acknowledgment in the United Declares Constitution of 1787, freedom of the press has appeared alongside freedom of expression as a cornerstone freedom, since the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law.”
While some regimes legislate within constitutional authority, they breach international law by excluding or restricting press freedom.