Colombia

COLOMBIA WHEREAS • eleven journalists have been killed in Colombia in the past year, most of them by guerrillas, and none of the killers have been brought to justice • abuses through court proceedings and other constitutional guarantees are systematicaJly restricting the free exercise of journalism • the Colombian Congress is debating conversion into statute law a presidential decree on civil unrest, one of whose provisions prohibits broadcast media from airing communiques, declarations or interviews with persons or organizations outside the law THE 49TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES • to energetically condemn the killing and intimidation of journalists and to demand that the police and courts intensify their investigations and apply the appropriate penalties • to exhort the Colombian judicial system to refrain from using court proceedings to limit freedom of the press • to call on the Congress to regulate adequately judicial proceedings and any other constitutional norm used against press freedom • to ask the Congress not to include in the civil unrest law any norms that would interfere with freedom of the press.