IMPUNITY MURDERS/DISAPPEARANCES
WHEREAS
From November 2009 to March 2010, 11 journalists were murdered in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, and the whereabouts of six journalists in this latter country remain unknown
WHEREAS
In Mexico, the country in the Americas with the greatest risks to working as a journalist, six journalists were killed and another has died as a result of having been tortured: Evaristo Pacheco Solís of the weekly Visión Informativa, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, on March 12, 2010; Jorge Ochoa Martínez of the weeklies El Sol de la Costa Chica and El Oportuno, Costa Chica, Guerrero, on January 29, 2010; José Luis Romero of radio station Línea Directa, Sinaloa, kidnapped on December 30, 2009, his body being found on January 16, 2010; Valentín Valdés Espinosa of the newspaper Zócalo de Saltillo, Saltillo, Coahuila, on January 7, 2010; José Alberto Velázquez López of the magazine Expresiones and Canal 30 television, Tulum, Quintana Roo, on December 22, 2009; José Emilio González Galindo of the University of Guadalajara radio station, Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, on November 24, 2009, and Jorge Rábago Valdez of Radio Rey and Reporteros en Red, Reynosa, Tamaulipas, who died on March 4, 2010 having been tortured during his abduction
WHEREAS
In Mexico the whereabouts are unknown of María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe of El Diario in Zamora, Michoacán, who went missing on November 10, 2009, and of two other journalists, from print and electronic media, kidnapped between February 18 and March 3, 2010 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, whose identities have not been disclosed out of fear of reprisals and putting their lives in danger
WHEREAS
In Honduras three journalists were murdered: Nahún Palacio of Televisora de Aguán, Canal 5 and Radio Tocoa, Tocoa, Colón, on March 14, 2010; David Meza of Radio El Patio, Radio América and Canal 10, La Ceiba, Atlántida, on March 11, 2010, and Joseph Hernández Ochoa of Canal 51, Tegucigalpa, on March 1, 2010
WHEREAS
In Colombia Harold Rvias Quevedo of CNC Bugavisión television, Valle del Cauca, was murdered on December 15, 2009 and that on March 19 Clodomiro Castilla Ospino, owner and director of the magazine El Pulso del Tiempo and reporter for radio La Voz de Montería was killed
WHEREAS
In Brazil José Givonaldo Vieira of Rádio Bezerros FM and Folha do Agreste, Pernambuco, was murdered on December 14, 2009
WHEREAS
Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: 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 MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES
to repudiate the murder and abduction of journalists in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico as a means of those who use violence to curtail freedom of the press, and to call upon these countries to rigorously engage in legal action so as to learn the motives of the attacks and send the masterminds and perpetrators of these crimes to prison;
to raise its voice in alarm at the dreadful panorama of violence besetting Mexico, in particular the journalists and news media in the inland part of the country, and to urge the government to take urgent action to rescue those who have been kidnapped, investigate the murders, stop the attacks, and take tough legal steps to put an end to the impunity and ensure freedom of the press without fear of reprisals;
to call upon the authorities of Honduras to investigate urgently the murders of journalists, determine the motives and, in an exemplary manner, bring those responsible to justice so that the crimes do not go unpunished;
ask relevant authorities in Colombia to conduct a prompt investigation and solve the murder of Harold Rivas Quevedo and put the masterminds and perpetrators on trial;
to urge the authorities of Brazil to solve the murder of José Givonaldo Vieira and bring the masterminds and perpetrators to justice so as to learn the reasons for the crime and to prevent it from remaining unpunished.