Impunity - Colombia

WHEREAS the vast majority of legal proceedings in cases of crimes against journalists remain in the early stages of evidence-gathering, with few results as to the identity of those who committed the crimes and those who masterminded them, in particular in the cases of murdered journalists Gerardo Bedoya (in Cali, Valle del Cauca, March 21, 1997), Jairo Elías Márquez (in Armenia, Quindio, February 10, 1997) and Ernesto Acero Cadena (in Armenia, Quindio, December 12, 1995) WHEREAS the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, responding to a request from the IAPA and aware of a rise in attacks on journalists and of the importance that they do not go unpunished, increased the number of state attorneys assigned to the Investigative Unit for Crimes Against Journalists and extended its range of action to the national level WHEREAS the Colombian Attorney General’s Office has carried out an investigation that led to conviction of the perpetrator of the murder of journalist Orlando Sierra Hernández in Manizales on January 30, 2002 WHEREAS the Specialized Criminal Circuit of Barranquilla acquitted, after a trial lasting more than a year, the person alleged to have committed the murder of journalist Carlos Lajud Catalán on March 19, 1993, and the public prosecutor appealed the acquittal WHEREAS since January 2002 the Colombian Attorney General’s Office has filed notice of appeal of the acquittal by the Specialized Criminal Circuit Court of Valledupar of the alleged perpetrators of the murder of journalist Guzmán Quintero Torres WHEREAS the Supreme Court determined that the crime against journalist Jaime Garzón on August 13, 1999 in Bogotá was a terrorist act, and therefore, special courts should handle the trial WHEREAS in the past six months four journalists have been murdered and there has been an increase in threats to journalists that have gone unpunished, with investigations into them so far producing no results WHEREAS in the face of the climate of intimidation a number of news media have had to cease operations in such places as Arauca, Caquetá and Cesar WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec declares that “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 urge the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to review the status of cases being handled by the Crimes Against Journalists Investigative Unit to determine why they are moving ahead so slowly and to obtain swifter results to express its pleasure at the decision, which it hopes may put an end to the impunity that surrounds so many cases of the murder of journalists and ensure a level of seriousness in the investigations in order to uncover those responsible for the violations of press freedom to express its pleasure at the course of the investigation but request that this effort lead to those who masterminded the murder of the managing editor of the newspaper La Patria to urge the High Court of Barranquilla to review the proceedings and heed the arguments of the appellants and to call on the Public Prosecutors Office to continue seeking to identify those who carried out this murder to urge the judge of the 7th Special Court in Bogotá to guarantee the transparency of the trial and convict those guilty of the crime to call upon the authorities to effectively handle investigations into threats to journalists through state attorneys specializing in that area and to urge the news media to train their journalists and give them protection in armed conflict zones, guaranteeing them rotation in their areas of coverage and sources of information to urge the Colombian government to take steps to safeguard them in their work in every corner of the nation, he news media to unite in a demonstration of protest and repudiation and the judiciary to punish those responsible for intimidation and censorship.