Since last month the IAPA, through advertisements in more than a hundred publications throughout the Western Hemisphere, has been inviting readers to join its campaign titled “Let US Put an End to Impunity” – a reference to the still-unpunished murder of 269 journalists committed in the Americas in the past 15 years. Members of the public may visit the IAPA’s special Web site, www.impunidad.com, to sign petitions addressed to the relevant government officials.
Coutinho da Silva, editor of the newspaper Cachoeiras Jornal in Cachoeira de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro state, was driving his automobile when he was shot 14 times from another vehicle on August 29, 1995. The case file went missing for a long time, until it was found by a state attorney, but the investigation remain stalled. “The criminal underworld is involved in all of this,” the state attorney commented. “The investigation aimed at identifying the culprits will move ahead only as far as the government provides resources for it. It is very dangerous to go out on the street virtually unarmed.”
The campaign against impunity that the IAPA is undertaking through its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, is being funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The ongoing project includes courses on investigative reporting, training for reporters in danger zones and the monitoring of the state of press freedom in the Americas.
Newspapers and magazines throughout the hemisphere, IAPA members and non-members alike, had voluntarily joined the four-year campaign, every month providing free-of-charge space to display the advertisements that call for justice to be done. In the advertisement prior to the current one, thousands of readers signed a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox asking him to step in to have the 1988 murder in Tijuana of journalist Héctor Félix Miranda solved.
A few days ago, two more journalists were murdered in separate incidents in
Brazil. In expressing sorrow, the IAPA publicly called on authorities in that
country to carry out an immediate investigation to identify those responsible
and bring them to justice.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
