(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 13 April 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA concerned about decade of impunity in the murder of journalists in Colombia To mark the anniversary of the murder of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, the Inter American Press Association announces its findings in an investigation into the legal proceedings in the murders of […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 13 April 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA concerned about decade of impunity in the murder of journalists in Colombia
To mark the anniversary of the murder of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, the Inter American Press Association announces its findings in an investigation into the legal proceedings in the murders of 51 news men and women.
The full document is available on the Web site: http://www.impunidad.com/procesoscolombia
MIAMI, Florida (April 13, 2004) – An investigation by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in Colombia underscored how impunity is surrounding the murder of journalists as the sixth anniversary of the murder of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal is commemorated on Friday, April 16.
For some time, the IAPA has been demanding that those guilty of murdering Carvajal, a radio reporter in Pitalito, Huila province, in 1998, in retaliation for his exposure of corruption, be brought to justice.
The investigation, carried out by the organization’s Rapid Response Unit (RRU) in Colombia in 2003, ascertained the status of legal proceedings in the cases of journalists murdered over the last 10 years.
Alberto Ibargüen, chairman of the IAPA’s Impunity Committee, said, “this work enables us to be more specific and responsible when we call on a government to take further action to solve cases of violence against journalists.”
After gathering information on all the journalists murdered between 1993 and 2003, the RRU investigated each of the 99 homicides. It found that 51 of the journalists were killed because of what they had written or said, the motives for 16 cases remain unknown, and 32 other journalists were slain for reasons other than their profession.
In addition to the Carvajal case, the investigation findings were cause for the IAPA to reiterate its concern regarding verdicts in the trials of alleged killers and persons behind the crimes in the murders of Jairo Elías Márquez, Ernesto Acero Cadena and Carlos Lajud Catalán.
The document also shows that official investigations rarely establish the identity of those
who mastermind such murders.
As regards motives, it was found that 19 journalists were killed because they had denounced political corruption, 11 were killed by paramilitaries, 10 by guerrillas, six by drug traffickers, four by police and in 1 case the causes remain unknown.
IAPA President Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, said, “the review of legal proceedings in the cases of journalists’ murders is a step towards applying the full force of the law to the guilty and persuading those who resort to violence that their actions are unacceptable in a democratic society.”
Ibargüen, chairman of The Miami Herald Publishing Company, Miami, Florida, added, “The professional work carried out by the Rapid Response Unit in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay – and especially at this time in Colombia by Diana Calderón – enables us to continue insisting on the urgent need to put an end to the impunity that surrounds journalists’ murders.”
