WHEREAS, the intellectual authors behind the crimes against Aristeu Guida da Silva - murdered on May 12, 1995 in the municipality of São Fidélis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro; Manoel Leal de Oliveira - murdered in January 1998 in Itabuna, Bahia; Ivan Rocha, disappeared in April 1991 in Teixeira de Freitas, Bahia; Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva - murdered on August 29, 1995 in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro; Edgar Lopes de Faria - murdered on October 29, 1997 in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul; and José Carlos Mesquita - murdered on March 10, 1998, in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, remain unpunished;
WHEREAS, on September 24, the President of the Court of Justice of the state of Goiás determined the return of in-person activities and authorized the holding of Jury sessions for defendants "imprisoned or free" - only prescribing on audience limitation; that, in light of this, attorney Valério Luiz de Oliveira Jr. filed the fifth date request for Jury Trial of defendants Ademá Figuerêdo Aguiar Jr., Djalma Gomes da Silva, Urbano de Carvalho Malta, Marcus Vinícius Pereira Xavier and Maurício Borges Sampaio, accused of being involved in the murder of his father - sports reporter Valério Luiz de Oliveira - on July 5, 2012, in Goiânia, state of Goiás; that the date for the trial has not yet been set;
WHEREAS, the Senate is currently considering bills to protect the professional activities of communicators, including PLS 329/2016, by Senator Acir Gurgacz (PDT-RO) - which classifies as a heinous crime the murder of a journalist due to his or her profession; PL 2,813/2020, by Senator Lucas Barreto (PSD-AP) - which considers the penalty aggravated when the crime is committed against a press professional in the exercise of his or her profession or due to it; PL 2. 874/2020, by Senator Weverton (PDT-MA) - which increases from one to two thirds the penalty for bodily injury to journalists and press professionals in the exercise of their profession or due to it - as well as to relatives who might be indirectly affected;
WHEREAS, Principle 4 of the Chapultepec Declaration states that: "Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, coercion, intimidation, unjust imprisonment of journalists, physical destruction of the media, violence of any kind, and impunity for perpetrators severely restrict freedom of expression and of the press. These actions must be promptly investigated and severely punished."
THE 77th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
To request full support and effort to bring to justice those accused of the murder of journalist Valerio Luiz de Oliveira, as well as other cases of journalists murdered in the exercise of their profession which are under investigation - and whose masterminds have not yet been identified or punished;
To request compliance with the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to the Brazilian State regarding threats, attacks, and murders of communicators, which have been denounced by IAPA through the Impunity project - and which were also the subject of public hearings at the IACHR, with the participation of IAPA and other human rights organizations in 2020;
To request that all bills that have an impact on access to information, journalistic work and press freedom be widely debated within civil society, press freedom organizations, journalists and experts on each of the respective topics - welcoming any suggestions and, once approved, be put to vote.
