Impunity

IMPUNITY WHEREAS November 17 has been set as the trial date for the defendant in the murder of Brazilian journalist Zaqueu de Oliveira, which means that for the first time in Brazil there is the real possibility of solving a crime against a journalist the Colombian government, at the IAPA's urging, decided to set up a special division of the Attorney General's Office to investigate the murders of journalists despite these advances there has been no progress in investigating the cases of the Brazilian journalist Artisteu Guida da Silva, killed in 1995, and the Colombian journalists Jairo Marquez and Gerardo Bedoya, killed in 1997 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to express its satisfaction with the resolve of the judicial authorities in Minas Gerais and Brazilian federal authorities to solve the unpunished crime against Zaqueu de Oliveira to express its satisfaction at the establishment of the Colombian special prosecutor's office and the hope that this will help solve more than 10 murders that have occurred in the past year alone to urge the heads of the Brazilian and Colombian judicial systems to speed up the investigations of the journalists' murders and end their impunity in these cases, which has serious consequences for press freedom.