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OAS MEETING OF GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSONS OPENS IN CHILE

SANTIAGO, Chile - The Secretary General of the Organization of America States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today opened a meeting of the hemisphere’s information ministers, calling on the region’s governments to increase transparency, combat poverty and enhance democracy.

“Without greater openness and without alleviating the suffering of our most vulnerable citizens, we cannot sustain democratic governance in the region,” Insulza said at the meeting, which is being hosted by the Ministry General Secretariat of Government of Chile.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos also participated in the inauguration, along with Osvaldo Puccio, the Minister Secretary General of the Government of Chile, and José Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The two-day meeting, which brings together information ministers and government spokespersons of the OAS member states, is being held at ECLAC headquarters in the Chilean capital.

President Lagos said the press and the government sometimes have a strained relationship, but government leaders must become better communicators and work with the press in order to win over the public every day. Just as governments must improve health, education and a wide variety of other services, they also must better communicate their agendas to the public, he said. All of those issues are important, but if the government doesn’t know how to communicate effectively then it is not achieving its goals, Lagos said.

OAS Secretary General Insulza added that “there is no such thing as a democratic and free country in which the press treats the government well on a permanent basis. That is a reality. But at the same time, they can demand that the information they receive is true and objective information.”

Insulza argued for greater press freedoms and noted that, sadly, even in the 21st century, journalists are still being murdered in this hemisphere. Journalists “must have the freedom to investigate and publish without fear of reprisals, harassment or revenge,” he said.

Minister Puccio said that only by improving communications channels with their citizens can governments significantly improve democracy. It is not possible to think of modern democratic societies if their citizens aren’t well-informed and able to obtain information, he said.

In order to improve democracy, governments must show greater transparency, which will lead to a greater level of trust from their constituents, said Machinea of ECLAC. “Access to information is a fundamental pillar for the education process and for developing competitiveness based on a more intensive use of knowledge,” he said. “And it is also a social and cultural right.”

Insulza said that in recent years the OAS has approved an impressive range of documents, conventions and resolutions on human rights, democracy and corruption. Just a few of them include:
· the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption in 1996,
· the Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression at the Second Summit of the Americas in Chile in 1998,
· the Inter-American Democratic Charter in 2001,
· the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas , and
· Resolution 2121 on “Access to Public Information: Strengthening Democracy” of the General Assembly of the OAS in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2005.

Despite major advances on the issues of transparency and democracy, Insulza and others noted that it is crucial for countries to make still greater strides by putting these principles into practice every day and providing broad access to information. “Access to public information is a fundamental right of any democratic society that is based on pluralism, tolerance, justice and mutual respect,” he said.

At the meeting, panels of international experts will discuss such issues as transparency and access to public information, risks faced by the press, the strengthening of democracy, human rights, gender equality, security and the need to combat poverty. They will also discuss the upcoming Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar de Plata, Argentina, in November.

Irene Klinger, the OAS Director of Communications and External Relations, emphasized the importance of the meeting. “It is an essential mechanism for government spokespersons to exchange experiences in order to provide greater access of information to their citizens and to foster greater participation from those citizens,” she said.

Reference: E-171/05