Impunity

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WHEREAS since the mid-year meeting in Cádiz thirteen journalists have been murdered, six in Mexico, four in Honduras, two in Brazil, and one in Ecuador, while another three have disappeared in Mexico WHEREAS in Mexico Victor Manuel Báez Chino, June 14; Marcos Antonio Ávila García, May 17; Gabriel Huge, Guillermo Luna and Esteban Rodríguez, May 3; and Regina Martínez, April 27 WHEREAS in Mexico the locations of Miguel Morales Estrada and Zane Plemmons continue to be unknown; they disappeared, respectively, in Veracruz on July 19 and in Tamaulipas, May 21; and Federico Manuel García Contreras, missing since May 16 from San Luis Potosí WHEREAS in Honduras José Noel Canales was murdered on August 10, Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez on July 8, and Alfredo Villatoro was abducted on May 9 and his body found on May 15, and Erick Alexander Martínez Ávila, May 7 WHEREAS in Brazil Valério Luiz de Oliveira was murdered on July 5 and Décio Sá on April 23 WHEREAS in Ecuador Byron Baldeón was murdered on July 1 WHEREAS police and taxation authorities in Bolivia have failed to investigate, and therefore, have not brought to justice, those responsible for the murder of Carlos Quispe Quispe, a journalist for Radio Municipal of Pucarani, which occurred on March 27, 2008 WHEREAS a person was sentenced to thirty years in prison for the murder of news cameraman Alfredo Hurtado in El Salvador on April 25, 2011 WHEREAS, it is fundamental to have the support of international organizations in order to, among other things, guarantee advances in the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists and to protect the physical safety of communicators WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says: “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 68th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES To condemn the murders of journalists that have occurred in recent months in Mexico, Honduras, and Brazil and to demand of the authorities of these countries greater political will, expeditious investigations and rigorous administration of justice to prevent violence from continuing as an instrument to silence and control freedom of the press To exhort the government of Mexico and the agencies created to conduct investigation into the murders and disappearances of journalists, to carry out their mandate to look into these and other unpunished crimes and to move ahead in their investigations and guarantee effective application of justice To call upon the government of Honduras to establish and implement urgently the mechanisms necessary to efficiently investigate and solve murders against communicators and to protect journalistic activities To request that Brazilian authorities deepen and quicken their investigations into the murders until they find the perpetrators and instigators. To ask the authorities of Ecuador for full clarification of the murder of Byron Baldeón in order to assign responsility. To demand the Ministry of Government of Bolivia, the police, and prosecutors in Bolivia to meet their commitments to investigate, clarify, and punish those responsible for the murder of Carlos Quispe Quispe. To praise the efforts and political will of authorities in El Salvador to solve the murder of Alfredo Hurtado To emphasize the importance of international organizations in watching over the full resolution of crimes against journalists, and in this regard, to exhort UNESCO to approve a United Nations Action Plan for the Protection and Safety of Journalists and on Impunity at its next meeting in November in Vienna; and urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to move ahead with and solve the cases of murder brought before that institution over the past fifteen years, in order to create greater awareness so that governments also comply with their responsibility to bring about justice and perform expeditious investigations into those crimes.

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