14 April 2011

IAPA urges governments to act to end impunity in murders of journalists

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MIAMI, Florida (April 14, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) at its meeting in San Diego, California, adopted resolutions that among other calls urged the governments of the nations of the Americas to put an end to the impunity surrounding a number of crimes against journalists.
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MIAMI, Florida (April 14, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) at its meeting in San Diego, California, adopted resolutions that among other calls urged the governments of the nations of the Americas to put an end to the impunity surrounding a number of crimes against journalists.

The organization called on the senior officials of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru to concern themselves with seeing that justice is done in still unpunished cases of murder or disappearance of journalists.

The resolution on Bolivia mentions the murder of Carlos Quispe Quispe, committed by peasants in Pucarani  in March 2008, and recalls the pledge that legal action would be against police officers who shot at television reporters.

Regarding Brazil the Bahia state government is asked to comply with an agreement to reopen the investigation into the 1998 murder of Manoel Leal de Oliveira to determine who was responsible for it, and that there should also be investigations into those of Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva in Rio de Janeiro and of Wanderley do Reis.

The resolution on Colombia among other aspects asks the authorities to investigate threats and attacks on journalists there and to ensure their protection so they can continue doing their job of reporting.

The IAPA also calls on Mexico’s government and legislators to honor commitments to pursue legal reforms to make crimes against press freedom federal offenses and to solve the cases on which the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued critical resolutions.

Finally, concerning Peru the judiciary is urged to observe due process and take action in the case of the death of journalist Alberto Rivera.

All the IAPA resolutions, conclusions and country-by-country reports can be viewed on the Web site www.sipiapa.org.

The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. The IAPA Impunity Project is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and has the mission of combating violence against journalists and lessening the impunity surrounding the majority of such crimes. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com.

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