Impunity - Murders

Aa

78th General Assembly

October 27 – 30, 2022

Madrid, Spain

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WHEREAS, since the April 2022 Mid-Year Meeting, 25 journalists and media workers have been killed for reasons apparently related to their professional work: 11 in Mexico, 3 in Colombia, 2 in Haiti, Honduras and Ecuador, and 1 each in Brazil, Chile, the United States and Paraguay. In total - in 2022 - 38 journalists and media personnel were murdered in 10 countries in the Americas: 19 in Mexico, 6 in Haiti, 3 in Honduras and Colombia, 2 in Ecuador, and one each in Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States

WHEREAS, in Mexico, the following were killed: Fredid Román - columnist for the online news program La Realidad de Guerrero, in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, on August 23; Juan Arjón López - director of the portal A qué le temes, in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, on August 16; Ernesto Méndez - editorial director of the newspaper Tu Voz, in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, on August 2; Antonio de la Cruz - journalist of the newspaper Expreso, in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, on June 29; Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi - director of the portal El Veraz and Sheila Johana García Olivera - videographer and reporter for the same newspaper, in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, on May 9; and Luis Enrique Ramírez - columnist for the newspaper El Debate, in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on May 4. The following were also killed: Allan González - announcer; Lino Flores - promotions department; Armando Guerrero - operations manager; and Alex Arriaga - bodyguard, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, on August 11

WHEREAS, in Haiti, Tess Garry, journalist, Radio Lebon FM, in the city of Les Cayes, on October 24;Frantzsen Charle s - reporter for FS NEWS, and Tayson Lartigue - director of the Tijèn Jounalis page on Facebook, were killed in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, on September 11, 2022

WHEREAS, the following were killed in Colombia: Rafael Emiro Moreno - director of the Voces de Córdoba website in Montelíbano, Córdoba, on October 16; Dilia Contreras - director of the digital program La Bocina Col, and Leiner Montero - director of the community radio station Sol Digital Stereo, in Fundación, Magdalena, on August 28

WHEREAS, in Ecuador, the following were killed: Gerardo Delgado - owner-manager of the digital media Ola Manta, in Manta, Manabí, on August 10, and Mike Cabrera - director of the digital page Nexo Digital, in Portoviejo, Manabí, on July 24

WHEREAS, in Honduras, the following were killed: Edwin Josué Andino - producer of the La Tribuna TV (LTV) channel in Tegucigalpa, on October 10; and Ricardo Ávila - journalist and cameraman for the Metro channel and radio station in Choluteca, Choluteca - attacked on May 25; died on May 29

WHEREAS, in Brazil, Dominic (Dom) Phillips - a British journalist and contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was killed in the Javari Valley, Amazonia, on June 5

WHEREAS, in Chile, Francisca Sandoval - a reporter for the community channel TV Señal 3 of La Victoria, was shot in the head on May 1 in Santiago and died on May 12

WHEREAS, in the United States, Jeff German - investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was killed in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 2

WHEREAS, in Paraguay, Humberto Andrés Coronel Godoy - reporter for Radio Amambay, was killed in Pedro Juan Caballero, Amambay, on September 6

WHEREAS, in Colombia, four journalists were killed in 2002: Walter López and Héctor Sandoval, Víctor Ómar Acosta and Mario Prada Díaz - these cases remained in total impunity

WHEREAS, Principle 4 of the Chapultepec Declaration states: "Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, coercion, intimidation, unjust imprisonment of journalists, physical destruction of the media, violence of any kind, and impunity for perpetrators severely curtail freedom of expression and of the press. These acts must be promptly investigated and severely punished."

THE 78TH IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES

To condemn the murders of Fredid Román, Allan González, Lino Flores, Armando Guerrero, Alex Arriaga, Ernesto Méndez, Antonio de la Cruz, Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi, Sheila Johana García Olivera, Luis Enrique Ramírez and Juan Arjón López, in Mexico; Tess Garry, Frantzsen Charles and Tayson Lartigue, in Haiti; Dilia Contreras, Leiner Montero and Rafael Emiro Moreno, in Colombia; Gerardo Delgado and Mike Cabrera, in Ecuador; Ricardo Ávila and Edwin Josué Andino, in Honduras; Dominic (Dom) Phillips, in Brazil; Francisca Sandoval, in Chile; Jeff German, in the United States; and Humberto Andrés Coronel Godoy, in Paraguay

To reiterate the request to the governments of Mexico, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Paraguay to uphold their responsibility to identify all those responsible for the murders and impose the corresponding punishments - so that those crimes do not remain in impunity and without justice

To urge the government of Colombia to increase its efforts in order to prevent that crimes against the press go unpunished due to lack of progress in the criminal proceedings

To continue raising awareness on the serious level of violence faced by journalists in the course of their work and the urgent need for efficient protection systems to guarantee the safety of communicators

To emphasize that the murder and disappearance of journalists and media workers constitute an extreme form of censorship, and that impunity and lack of justice only encourage further acts of violence - creating an inhibiting effect on the exercise of freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

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