Impunity

WHEREAS that the majority of the 295 murders of journalists occurring in the past 19 years have not been resolved and that the violence against the press on the part of organized crime has increased in several countries in the Americas WHEREAS that UNESCO, in its Resolution 29 de 1997, initiated by Uruguay, Colombia, Costa Rica, and México, and supported by Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, asks its member states to adopt the principle that there should be no statute of limitations for crimes against persons when these are perpetrated to prevent the exercise of freedom of information and expression or when their purpose is the obstruction of justice; WHEREAS that the Organization of American States in its resolution of June 2, 1998, called upon its member states to strengthen the measures needed for the investigation and punishment, in accordance with their domestic law, of assaults upon freedom of expression and crimes against journalists WHEREAS that the lack of action or the indifference of the authorities to investigate crimes against journalists generates self-censorship in the media and uninformed citizens, which constitutes a fissure in the freedom of expression and freedom of the press WHEREAS that Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes: “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly.” THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to exhort the governments to fulfill their commitments to Resolution 29 of UNESCO and the OAS Attacks Against the Exercise of Freedom of the Press and Crimes Against Journalists and to adapt their domestic legislation so that it creates a better legal and judicial framework with which to combat impunity.