(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 April 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA Issues Appeal Regarding Still Unpunished Murder of Brazilian Journalist MIAMI, Florida (April 23, 2004) – In a new bid to raise awareness of the need to solve the unpunished murders of journalists in the Americas, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 April 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA Issues Appeal Regarding Still Unpunished Murder of Brazilian Journalist
MIAMI, Florida (April 23, 2004) – In a new bid to raise awareness of the need to solve the unpunished murders of journalists in the Americas, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today asked Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his help in pursuing the investigation into the murder of Rolando Santana de Araújo in 1997, in Eunápolis, Bahía.
The IAPA is waging a hemisphere-wide campaign titled “Let’s Put an End to Impunity” to ensure that the murders of more than 200 journalists in the last 15 years do not continue to go unpunished. Advertisements alluding to the crimes are being published in more than a hundred newspapers in North, South and Central America and the Caribbean. They call on readers to go to the Association’s special Web site, http://www.impunidad.com, to add their signatures to an open letter to governments calling for action.
Rolando Santana de Araújo was a radio reporter. He was shot dead after exposing on his radio program alleged wrongdoing in the local government and police department of Eunápolis, in Bahia. Legal proceedings are stalled. The guilty have gone unpunished for seven years.
The IAPA’s campaign, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also includes investigative reporting activities, training for reporters working in danger zones and monitoring of the state of press freedom in the Americas.
