(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 5 September 2001 IAPA press release: IAPA investigations into crimes against journalists uncover irregularities MIAMI, Florida (September 5, 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that new inquiries it has carried out into the murder of journalists in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia have uncovered numerous irregularities […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 5 September 2001 IAPA press release:
IAPA investigations into crimes against journalists uncover irregularities
MIAMI, Florida (September 5, 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that new inquiries it has carried out into the murder of journalists in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia have uncovered numerous irregularities in the official investigations.
Findings in the IAPA’s inquiries, conducted by the Rapid Response Units set up under the hemispheric free press organization’s Impunity Project, have been posted on its Web site, www.impunidad.com. They include witness testimonies and leads that have been ignored, discrepancies and errors in the judicial process, foot-dragging, threats and other obstacles to solving the crimes and bringing the guilty to justice.
Among the cases concerned was that of Brazilian journalist Mário Eugênio Rafael de Oliveira, murdered in Brasília on November 11, 1984, while working as a crime reporter for the daily Correio Braziliense. Police officers and Public Safety Department officials were implicated in the killing. Nevertheless, 17 years later, the crime remains largely unsolved and one defendant, sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison for actually carrying out the murder, remains a fugitive.
Another case reviewed was the August 11, 1998, murder of Colombian journalist Amparo Leonor Jiménez. The alleged killer, identified by eye-witnesses, is currently in jail on other charges and is awaiting trial later this month in connection with the Jiménez murder. Jiménez devoted the last year of her life to promoting peace initiatives in Valledupar, capital of Cesar province, in the heart of a Colombian war zone. She had previously worked as a television news correspondent.
The IAPA also investigated the death on July 29 this year of Bolivian reporter Juan Carlos Encinas, a radio and television news stringer. He was killed during a clash between groups of country people about 30 miles from the Bolivian capital of La Paz. The circumstances surrounding his death have not yet been officially determined and it is not known whether or not his death was linked to his work as a journalist.
