(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 June 2006 IAPA press release: IAPA URGES PARAGUAY’S PRESIDENT TO PURSUE PROBE INTO NEWSMAN MURDER MIAMI, Florida (June 28, 2006) – In a new action in its hemisphere-wide campaign to create public awareness of the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today reminded […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 June 2006 IAPA press release:
IAPA URGES PARAGUAY’S PRESIDENT TO PURSUE PROBE INTO NEWSMAN MURDER
MIAMI, Florida (June 28, 2006) – In a new action in its hemisphere-wide campaign to create public awareness of the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today reminded Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos of the need to pursue investigations into the death of journalist Salvador Medina Velázquez until all those responsible are identified and brought to justice.
Medina was killed in Capiibary, San Pedro province, Paraguay, on January 5, 2001, after he exposed corruption in a broadcast on the community radio station he ran. The person found to have carried out the murder was sentenced to 25 years in prison, from which he escaped, though he was later recaptured. Although witnesses testified that there were others involved, inquiries to determine who was behind the crime have so far produced no result whatsoever.
In the last 18 years a total of 299 journalists have been murdered in the Americas. Through ads run in more than 340 publications throughout the Western Hemisphere, the IAPA is inviting readers to join its “Let’s Put an End to Impunity” campaign by logging on to its Web site, http://www.impunidad.com
The campaign is also being waged on the radio, through an alliance of the IAPA with the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), with spots that detail the still-unpunished murders of journalists and call on listeners to go to the Web site http://www.impunidad.com and sign a letter of support.
The campaign is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and also includes investigative reporting programs, training for reporters working in hazardous areas, and the monitoring of the state of press freedom in the Americas.
