MIAMI, Florida (July 27, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today renewed its call to take part in a Universities Hemisphere Conference which under the title “Public Policies to Combat Impunity” is to be held August 25-26 in the Mexican city of Puebla, where participants will review and rule on research into lack of punishment in cases of violence against journalists that inter-disciplinary teams from 24 Latin American universities have carried out.
This event, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will bring together jurists, professors, legislators, lawyers, news media editors and publishers, government officials and university students to discuss the research done by professional teams from schools of communication, law and political science, among others, from which will emerge a final document addressed to federal and state governments, NGOs, universities and news media for them to take action to protect the work of journalists and reduce impunity.
“We intend to motivate the training and incorporation of future leaders of the press and the judiciary into a society with greater awareness and a more sensitive attitude towards how the level of press freedom affects a democracy,” declared IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21.
The conference will be held at the Barroco Room of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) and will focus on the research carried out by teams from a number of universities – Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA); Universidad Centro Universitário Metodista (IPA-POA), Porto Alegre, Brazil; Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) Brazil; Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), Chile; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia; Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA), Colombia; Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador; Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala; Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales (UCC), Nicaragua; Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Paraguay; Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), Peru; Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), Dominican Republic; Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB),Venezuela, as well as those in Mexico – Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa (UAS), Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP).
No-fee attendance and participation in the Puebla hemispheric meeting, with the sponsorship of the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and the local newspaper Síntesis, is at the invititation of the SIP, but requires prior registration via e-mail to [email protected].
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.