Campaign against impunity

WHEREAS as part of the “End Impunity” advertising campaign, the IAPA asked the prosecutor of Bahía, Brazil, Archile de Jesús Siquara Filho, to reopen the case of Ivan Rocha, a reporter for Radio Alvorada AM, of Teixeira de Freitas, who disappeared and allegedly was murdered on April 22, 1991 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Rosinha Garotinho, to expedite the investigation of the case of Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva, editor of the newspaper Cachoeiras Jornal, of Cachoeiras de Macacu, who was murdered on August 29, 1995 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the attorney general of Colombia, Luis Camilo Osorio to reopen the case of Elizabeth Obando Murcia, distribution director of El Nuevo Día in Roncesvalles, who was murdered on June 13, 2002 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the attorney general of Colombia, Luis Camilo Osorio, to reopen the case of Gerardo Bedoya, editorial writer of the daily El País of Cali, who was murdered March 21, 1997 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the president of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Luis Paulino Mora, to clear up the case of Parmenio Medina, a reporter for Radio Monumental of San Jose, who was murdered on July 7, 2001 WHEREAS the IAPA urged the president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, to investigate and clear up the case of Orlando Sierra Hernández, a columnist for the daily La Patria of Manizales, who was murdered February 1, 2002 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to investigate and clear up the case of Jean Léopold Dominique, news director of Radio Haití of Port-au-Prince, who was murdered on April 3, 2000 WHEREAS the IAPA asked the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, to expedite the reopening of the case of Héctor Félix Miranda, editor of Zeta of Tijuana, who was murdered on April 20, 1988, so that criminal charges may be pursued against those who ordered his murder and so that the homicide of Víctor Manuel Oropeza of Ciudad Juárez and the attack against Jesús Blancornelas of Tijuana, Baja California may finally be solved WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec declares: “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure, 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 59TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the national and local governments mentioned to intensify the investigations to find those responsible for the crimes against journalists to ask the governments to comply with requests made about these cases within the inter-American system through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.