Press freedom.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: Organization of American States' Freedom of Expression in the Twenty-First Century in the Americas conference - Editorial

DESPITE MAJOR challenges to freedom of expression in the Americas, significant progress is being made, concluded a forum of experts who convened at OAS headquarters in May. Noting positive developments, such as more countries introducing access-to-information laws, participants also observed that more journalists are being killed as they carry out their reporting duties and that challenges remain to the consolidation of democracy in the region.

"A country's degree of democracy is directly proportional to the level of press freedom that exists there," said Diana Daniels, president of the inter-American Press Association who is also vice president of the Washington Post Company. Daniels spoke on a panel discussing "Freedom of Expression in the Twenty-First Century in the Americas," part of the Americas Project, a joint initiative with Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Held annually, the Americas Project provides a leadership forum for discussion of topics of importance to the hemisphere.

Journalist Pablo Bachelet of the Miami Herald's Washington Bureau noted that "political instability, institutional weakness, and soaring and frustrated popular expectations impact the media directly, often...