Miami (April 25, 2025) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today concluded its two-day Midyear Meeting, held in virtual format, with the reading of its Conclusions covering relevant issues affecting freedom of expression and press freedom in the Americas.
Below is the full text of the Conclusions:
Hostility, harassment, and stigmatizing rhetoric against journalists and news outlets by those in power have been on the rise across the Americas. In the United States, with the return of President Donald Trump, the discrediting and attempts to hinder the work of journalists and media companies have even led to information blockades.
“Across the hemisphere, we see how journalists and media outlets face a hostile reality: from physical violence to judicial harassment, from economic censorship to public stigmatization. Authoritarian governments and weakened democracies are increasingly resorting to repressive tactics to silence independent voices,” said José Roberto Dutriz (La Prensa Gráfica, El Salvador), president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in his opening remarks at the Mid-Year Meeting.
In the past six months, the IAPA has recorded stigmatization of journalism by the state in at least 14 of the 24 monitored countries in the region. This means that in more than half of the continent— including the most populous nations—discrediting the press is common practice by populist rulers (both left and right), lower-level officials, opposition leaders, and social media trolls. In every case, the clear goal is to undermine the credibility of journalists and media outlets that report on matters of public interest.
But verbal violence has an even more serious and dangerous side. From October 2024 to the present, 10 journalists have been murdered in cases apparently linked to their professional work: one in Colombia, one in Ecuador, one in Guatemala, two in Haiti, four in Mexico, and one in Peru. Additionally, one reporter is missing in each of the following countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Haiti. A high level of impunity persists, fueled by the authorities’ lack of interest in uncovering those responsible for these attacks.
This hostile climate for the press stems from a persistent institutional decline across much of the continent, resulting in scarce or non-existent guarantees for the practice of free journalism. The weakening of press and expression freedoms hinders the promotion of broad, pluralistic citizen debate, which in turn affects the democratic environment. All this is worsened by growing restrictions on access to public information in nearly every country in the Americas.
In a panel held on the first day of the meeting, former Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla warned that democracy cannot be taken for granted. “Even the strongest democracies are facing erosion,” she said. The number of countries sliding toward authoritarianism is more than double that of those advancing toward democracy, she added.
In another panel, Catalina Botero, former Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, proposed an initiative to create a public interest social network to counter the opaque control of major platforms that spread disinformation. “Echo chambers,” she said, “reward the neighborhood bully.”
To this increasingly complex environment, organized crime continues to pose a serious threat. In Ecuador, criminal organizations threatened five journalists and committed six other attacks in digital spaces.
As a result of persecution and violence, in extreme cases journalists have been forced into exile. The Latin American Network of Journalism in Exile (RELPEX) has documented more than 200 displaced reporters, particularly from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ecuador.
Living in exile brings challenges such as uprooting, cultural and linguistic adjustment, limited financial resources, legal hurdles, administrative and judicial persecution, and reprisals against their families back home. Even in host countries, they often face legal persecution initiated by their own governments. The IAPA has raised its voice and expanded support programs in response.
Venezuela, in particular, has intensified its persecution and criminalization of the press, especially in the political aftermath of the 2024 elections, with a rise in arrests linked to coverage of protests and public demonstrations.
It is no surprise that the use of legal systems to intimidate journalists is also increasing, with lawsuits designed to discourage investigations and reporting. These lawsuits, often filed in civil courts with multimillion-dollar claims, are also being pursued criminally in many countries, despite international standards calling for decriminalization of defamation-related offenses against journalists.
Still, legal harassment often escalates to attempts at imprisonment. A paradigmatic case is that of José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, founder of elPeriódico in Guatemala, who has been imprisoned for over 850 days on an irregular charge of alleged money laundering. Similar persecution is taking place in Peru against journalists investigating criminals and public officials.
Country-by-country reports presented at the meeting also highlight social media harassment campaigns, especially targeting women.
There has also been an increase in attacks on journalists covering street protests, whether from violent demonstrators or police repression.
On another front, media sustainability remains a constant challenge. This was discussed in depth during an analysis of the impacts of artificial intelligence. Ana Paula Valacco, from Journalism AI, expressed optimism: “We shouldn’t fear AI—it can be part of the solution.”
Cristina Tardáguila, from Lupa agency, added, “Disinformation didn’t bring about the electoral chaos we feared. To study this phenomenon, we need AI.”
“There is no free journalism without viable media outlets,” said the IAPA president. In this regard, he highlighted the IAPA’s work with support from the Google News Initiative through the Digital Revenue Accelerator. “Now in its second phase, this initiative has already benefited dozens of Latin American media outlets by providing training, mentorship, and practical tools to strengthen business models, diversify revenue, and better seize the opportunities of the digital environment.”
In the morning of this Friday, Miguel Angel Olivier from EFE and Julie Pace from AP have reported on the coverage challenges we continue to face. As a result of this, there is a growing number of journalists in exile, from whom we have seen testimonies.
At the closing session, Carlos Jornet (La Voz del Interior, Argentina), chair of the IAPA’s Press Freedom and Information Committee, emphasized: “If we don’t fight against disinformation and intolerance, disinformation and intolerance will end journalism, democracy, and the well-being of our societies.” He concluded, “Let’s keep working to ensure our media remain spaces for debate and civic engagement—strongholds against authoritarianism, and beacons of freedom and progress.”
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.