(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 May 2004 IAPA press release: IAPA PROTESTS UNPUNISHED MURDER IN PARAGUAY MIAMI, Florida (May 24, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on newspaper and magazine readers throughout the Western Hemisphere to add their signatures to an open letter to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 May 2004 IAPA press release:
IAPA PROTESTS UNPUNISHED MURDER IN PARAGUAY
MIAMI, Florida (May 24, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on newspaper and magazine readers throughout the Western Hemisphere to add their signatures to an open letter to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, asking for his help to solve the April 2000 murder of radio station staff member Benito Ramón Jara.
The IAPA is waging a hemisphere-wide campaign, titled “Let Us Put an End to Impunity,” calling for the murders of 272 journalists committed over the last 15 years not to continue to go unpunished. Interactive ads are appearing in more than a hundred newspapers and magazines throughout the Americas, inviting readers to join the campaign by going to the Web site www.impunidad.com and signing a letter.
Jara, 37, who worked as business agent for the radio station in Yby Yaú, a town 280 miles from the Paraguayan capital of Asunción, was shot to death and his murder has been seen by Paraguayan journalists as an effort to gag the press. They called on the federal government to immediately conduct an inquiry into the incident, but have not received a response. Police investigations into the case have stalled.
The IAPA’s hemisphere-wide campaign against impunity, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also includes investigative reporting programs, training for reporters working in hazardous areas and monitoring of the state of press freedom in the Americas.
