IAPA President, Robert J. Cox, indicated that "in many cases the indifference, and in others, the negligence of those that impart justice, encourages violent people to continue attacking those individuals and media that have a mission to inform and uncover issues that otherwise would remain hidden from the public."
The statements made by Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, in Charleston, South Carolina, refer to the violent acts that occurred against journalists in Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, and Guatemala, and attacks against media outlets in Venezuela and Colombia in recent weeks.
Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, pointed out that "our investigative experience into cases of aggression against freedom of the press shows us that when there is no political support, a rigorous police investigation and a quick call for justice to try to find those responsible for the violence, we observe a certain repetition of violence against journalists."
Molina, publisher of the magazine Ahora, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, stated, "the strict application of the law by authorities is the only antidote against the violence and one of the necessary guarantees for journalists and the media not to be tempted by self-censorship."
Cox and Molina expressed that violence is one of the more important issues to be examined at the IAPA Midyear Meeting in the Dominican Republic on March 15-19.
Among the incidents that shook the journalism world and called for IAPA action in the last few weeks, are the following:
· Murders: in Mexico, Julio Samuel Morales
Ferrón, whose body was found on February 1, and Félix Fernández
García, on January 18; in Colombia, Orlando Sierra Hernández,
who died on February 2 after being attacked; Marcos Antonio Ayala Cárdenas,
on January 23; Esaú Jarmillo, on January 19, and Alvaro Alonso Escobar,
on December 23, 2001; and in Haiti, Brignol Lindor, on December 3, 2001
· In Venezuela, incidents of violence in front of the newspaper El Nacional,
a bomb exploded in front of the newspaper Así Es La Noticia and protests
in front of El Universal; in Colombia, attacks against the offices of Canal
Caracol radio station
· In Haiti, some 40 journalists were threatened and attacked in the past
two months; while in Cuba and Guatemala recurring attacks against journalists
have been reported.
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