Bolivia

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WHEREAS most of the attacks on journalists and media outlets in the Plurinational State of Bolivia are committed by social groups, and especially occur after public verbal attacks against the press by the president of and high government officials WHEREAS there was no official in-depth investigation of the attack on two journalists of the Unitel television network by members of the Unidad Táctica de Resolución de Crisis (UTARC) of the Bolivian police WHEREAS the victims recognized police Captain Walter Andrade as responsible for that attack and he admitted attacking the journalists on September 3 of this year WHEREAS Government Minister Alfredo Rada and Gen. Victor Hugo Escobar, commander of the National Police, promised Bolivian journalism groups that they would investigate and sanction the attack on the Unitel journalists on September 3 of this year and other attacks by police against journalists and attacks on media outlets in recent years WHEREAS although there are two decrees to this effect, access to information in Bolivia is nonexistent because of almost widespread ignorance of public authorities and the population in general of these norms WHEREAS Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, “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 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the president of Bolivia and government authorities not to insult or verbally attack journalists and the media and if they have complaints against the press to make them through the appropriate channels which are letters to the editors of the media outlets to ask the government minister and police commander to live up to their promise to conduct the investigation and punish those responsible for the UTARC attack on Unitel journalists to demand that police authorities charged with investigations look into the case of Capt. Walter Andrade because of his confessed participation in the attack on the Unitel journalists and that he be tried in the ordinary courts so he will have an impartial trial to demand that the government minister and police commander fulfill their commitment to investigate until they find those responsible for attacks on other journalists and media outlets to ask the Bolivian state to comply, via the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Ministry with decrees requiring that public institutions make information available, to develop training campaigns for public officials and society and to report violations to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

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