COLOMBIA

WHEREAS over the last six months the Foundation for Press Freedom has reported 32 threats against journalists, especially from the print media and radio stations in Huila, Tolima, Norte de Santander, Aruaca and Valle del Cauca provinces and Bogotá, and these threats led to three journalists going into exile abroad and eight others moving from their places of origin WHEREAS according to the Electoral Oversight Mission there is a risk that the work of reporters in 50 municipalities throughout the country concerning the October 28 elections could be compromised WHEREAS the Constitutional Court continued consolidating jurisprudence in favor of freedom of expression through recent rulings in the cases of El Tiempo columnist Salud Hernández, the RCN program El Mañanero and others no less important WHEREAS President Alvaro Uribe suggested that El Nuevo Herald correspondent Gonzalo Guillén published lies and libel in that newspaper and that he had cooperated in the publication of a book that links him to the late drug trafficker Pablo Escobar WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says “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 IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to ask the Colombian Attorney General to undertake an investigation in order to identify and punish those responsible for the threats that have been hindering the work of journalists in various parts of the country to urge the relevant authorities to safeguard the work of journalists in informing on and covering the October 28 elections in the 50 municipalities in the country that have been identified as dangerous by the Electoral Oversight Mission to welcome the recent decisions of the Colombian Constitutional Court for their contribution to the consolidation of a jurisprudence that respects and guarantees free speech and freedom of information to ask President Alvaro Uribe to refrain from stigmatization and defamation of journalists, because such action endangers life and undermines the credibility of the press.