WHEREAS in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, United States and Venezuela there was noted an increase in the cases of censorship, false news, intolerance, threats and harassment of journalists and news media on social media
WHEREAS in the region there exists a growing tendency of systematic digital lynching of journalists and news media through social media with the objective of discrediting them
WHEREAS the practices of aggression against independent journalists, which occur with greater frequency in the interior of their countries, has been demonstrated through threats, persecution, intimidation and defamation campaigns
WHEREAS net centers are also used and personal accounts are hacked to attack media, journalists and opinion makers as means of undermining their credibility
WHEREAS many of those attacks came from public officials and citizens
WHEREAS in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela there have been registered cyber attacks on news websites, disclosing a new form of censorship
WHEREAS the Declaration of Chapultepec states in its Principles 4 and 6, respectively, that "Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators" and that "the media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say."
THE 74th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to condemn the attacks on and harassment of journalists and news media on the digital platforms that are increasingly used as weapons of disinformation and for discrediting campaigns.
