WHEREAS the exile of journalists in Latin America is a reminder of the human cost of repression and violence against the press and that, in recent years, numerous reporters have been forced to relocate to other areas of their country or emigrate due to violence and threats from criminal gangs, corrupt officials, and authoritarian governments
WHEREAS this phenomenon includes media outlets, particularly from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, some of which had to open operations abroad to avoid systematic persecution
WHEREAS journalists and their families in exile face challenges such as uprooting, cultural and linguistic maladaptation, limited economic resources, legal obstacles, administrative and judicial persecution, and reprisals against their relatives in their countries of origin and even abroad, their websites are constantly blocked in their countries of origin
WHEREAS Ecuadorian organizations reported 19 exiles of journalists between 2023 and 2025 and that the situation in Ecuador reflects the absence of official protection policies for journalists and media outlets
WHEREAS the Latin American Network of Journalism in Exile (RELPEX) of the IAPA documented more than 200 cases of journalists in exile, mobility, or forced displacement, mainly from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ecuador
WHEREAS that the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes in its fourth principle that "intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators" severely restrict freedom of expression and press," and affirms in its tenth article that "no news media nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth, criticizing, or denouncing the government."
THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
To request States to create human, economic, psychological, and labor support programs for journalists displaced to other regions within their countries
To urge receiving States to create insertion projects for exiled journalists, providing them with adequate humanitarian, economic, psychological, and labor assistance, as well as expedite the procedures for granting political asylum or special work visas
To request the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and other intergovernmental organizations to create programs to support the insertion of journalists and encourage reintegration programs in their countries of origin when appropriate conditions are met.
