It highlights the progress concerning legal action on murder case in Brazil, and the new protection system for journalists in Guatemala
Miami (December 9, 2013)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at violent acts in Honduras, where a journalist was murdered, and in Mexico, where a female reporter went missing. At the same time the organization welcomed action by Brazilian courts and moves ahead for the protection of members of the press in Guatemala.
Killed in Honduras was Juan Carlos Argeñal Medina, correspondent of Globo TV in the city of Danli, El Paraíso province, in the southeast of the Central American nation. Argeñal Medina, 43, was found on Saturday (December 7) inside his home with several shots to the head and chest. He was also a correspondent of Radio Globo and was the owner of the Christian television channel Vida Televisión and of a record company.
Although it was not immediately known if he was killed in retaliation for his work, his family linked the murder to denunciations he had made about alleged corruption inside the city’s administration.
In Mexico, the whereabouts of Zoila Márquez Chiu remained unknown. She is a reporter with the online newspaper Linea Informativa in Zacatecas. Márquez Chiu was last seen on Saturday afternoon when driving her car to a local video club. She never arrived and according to local media could not be located via her mobile phone because she had not taken it with her. The authorities reported that there was no immediate indication whether she might have been kidnapped.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, said, “We trust that the authorities in Mexico can locate the journalist’s whereabouts as soon as possible, and that the case in Honduras be investigated in-depth so as to identify those responsible.”
Brazil and Guatemala
In another development, the IAPA praised the action by the judiciary in Brazil where seven people, accused of murdering journalist Edinaldo Filgueira, were sentenced on December 6 to 19 to 23 years in prison. The Public Prosecutor’s Office proved that those accused had got together to kill Filgueira because of his work as a journalist.
Filgueira, a blogger, editor and publisher of the newspaper O Serrano, had criticized the local city administration. He was murdered on June 15, 2011, in the town of Serra do Mel in Rio Grande do Norte state. He also served as president of the Workers Party (PT) in Serra do Mel.
Meanwhile, in Guatemala the government of President Otto Pérez announced in late November the launch of a protection mechanism to ensure the safety of journalists. It is due to begin functioning in early 2014 and will have the collaboration of ministries, state bodies and press associations.
As a result of the negotiations between the IAPA and the Guatemalan government, with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission acting as intermediary, there was created in 2001 the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists. Since then the IAPA has been criticizing its lack of effectiveness.
“In our experience we trust that for the mechanism to do its job to protect it should have the sufficient resources and staff to ensure its effectiveness, said Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
