OFF THE CUFF: Icy reception for journalism proposal

 A PROPOSAL to regulate   who can practice journalism ,including constraints on  foreign writers and photographers living in Panama, has received short shrift from the government.A blunt statement  from the Secretary of State Communications said:

The government of Juan Carlos Varela is in disagreement with “any rule that restricts the freedoms of expression and information,”

“The government has no interest in reviving legal instruments which are used to censor and stifle the freedoms of Panamanians,”  The Minister of the Presidency Álvaro Alemán added his own stinging rebuttal to a proposal that surprisingly had the backing of local journalist’s bodies that have frequently demonstrated against what they see as impositions on freedom of expression. Said Alemán: “The government has no interest in reviving legal instruments which are used to censor and stifle the freedoms of Panamanians,”  

Last week, Panameñista Deputy Juan Bautista Moya, with the support of the National College of Journalists (Conape) and the Journalists Union of Panama, presented a draft which regulates the professional careers of journalists and photojournalists.

The proposal limits, for example, the time foreign journalists can work in Panama to two years. It also punishes the ‘illegal’ exercise of journalism with penalties of up to five years in prison.

Luis Blanco, president of the Foreign Press Correspondents Association (Acopep), warned that the draft violates the constitution and the American Convention on Human Rights.

Conape President Blanca Gomez acknowledged that the proposal has several issues which need to be corrected.  

Alemán said that the administration will not support any law that does not expand press freedom.

Moya said he has not discussed the issue with the presidency, and said he supports the freedoms of expression and opinion.

It would appear that Moya and the journalists’ associations have not kept up with the times and realized that everyone with a cell phone or a computer has become an on the spot commentator who, under the ill thought out proposal,would be subject to up to five years in jail, something that every dictator or authoritarian ruler  would welcome.