Participants will review research into the lack of punishment in cases of violence against journalists that interdisciplinary teams from 24 Latin American universities have carried out.
(IAPA/IFEX) – MIAMI, Florida, July 27, 2011 – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today renewed its call to organisations urging them to take part in a Universities Hemisphere Conference which under the title “Public Policies to Combat Impunity” is to be held August 25-26 in the Mexican city of Puebla, where participants will review research into the lack of punishment in cases of violence against journalists that inter-disciplinary teams from 24 Latin American universities have carried out.
This event, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will bring together jurists, professors, legislators, lawyers, news media editors and publishers, government officials and university students to discuss the research done by professional teams from schools of communication, law and political science, among others, from which will emerge a final document addressed to federal and state governments, NGOs, universities and news media calling on them to take action to protect the work of journalists and reduce impunity.
“Our intent is to bring about further training and the incorporation of future leaders of the press and the judiciary into a society with greater awareness and a more sensitive attitude towards how the level of press freedom affects a democracy,” declared IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21.
The conference will be held at the Barroco Room of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) and will focus on the research carried out by teams from a number of universities – Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA); Universidad Centro Universitário Metodista (IPA-POA), Porto Alegre, Brazil; Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) Brazil; Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), Chile; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia; Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA), Colombia; Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador; Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala; Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales (UCC), Nicaragua; Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Paraguay; Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), Peru; Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), Dominican Republic; Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB),Venezuela; as well as those in Mexico – Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa (UAS), Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP).
Attendance at no charge and participation in the Puebla hemispheric meeting, with the sponsorship of the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and the local newspaper Síntesis, is at the invititation of IAPA, but requires prior registration via e-mail to conferenciapuebla (@) sipiapa.org.