WHEREAS a serious attack on freedom of expression and the right to inform is any type of attack on news media
WHEREAS at present the digital environment also gives weapons to the enemies of press freedom and investigative journalism
WHEREAS it is of special concern in El Salvador that online attacks on the newspapers La Prensa Gráfica and El Diario de Hoy carried out on repeated occasions, to date remaining unpunished
WHEREAS in recent findings in investigations carried out by the El Salvador Attorney General's Office as those obtained through a report made in the United States and validated by the U.S. Justice Department, plus a series of technical reports by local experts sworn to by a competent judge, there has been shown again the link of a public official, San Salvador Mayor Nayib Bukele, as the mastermind of the cyber attacks on local newspapers
WHEREAS especially serious is the participation of an official in this kind of offense which currently can be classified i and punished under the Law on Information Offenses passed in early 2016, and in addition the performance of these characteristics made by an official can be characterized as an offense against freedom of expression, punished under El Salvador laws with aggravated circumstances in the case of civil servants
WHEREAS the 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 IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to issue an urgent call on the El Salvador authorities to determine the degree of participation of El Salvador Mayor Nayib Bukele in the attacks carried out against La Prensa Gráfica and El Diario de Hoy and that there be sought an exemplary punishment and legal precedent for offenses by public officials and online criminal groups currently sheltering in cyberspace
to maintain active and permanent vigilance of the current legal proceedings, whose phase of preliminary investigation of the five suspects considered to be perpetrators (who are out free on bail and among whom is included a person of confidence and employee of Mayor Bukele) winds up this month of October
to send a special committee to El Salvador considering the seriousness of the facts and that the decisions of the El Salvador authorities can constitute fundamental precedents for international law on freedom of expression regarding this kind of offenses
to urge all the El Salvador media to join forces not only regarding the present case but also to denounce any attack on the press carried out by online criminal groups
to call upon the local authorities to strengthen the institutionalization and obtain adequate tools to confront cyber attack as a modern way of assaulting news media not only in El Salvador but in various countries of the Americas.
