(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 19 October 2005 IAPA press release: IAPA condemns attack on journalist in Uruguay Miami (19 October 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns the attack on journalist Marcelo Borrat, and urges Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez to ensure that the incident is investigated and […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 19 October 2005 IAPA press release:
IAPA condemns attack on journalist in Uruguay
Miami (19 October 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns the attack on journalist Marcelo Borrat, and urges Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez to ensure that the incident is investigated and that those responsible are identified.
In a 19 October letter to President Vázquez, IAPA President Diana Daniels, of The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C., and the president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, director of Prensa Libre newspaper, in Guatemala, urged him to see to it that the case does not set a negative precedent.
Borrat hosted the “Juramento Hipocrático” programme, broadcast on the AM Libre radio station, which is owned by media businessman Federico Fasano. The journalist was dismissed in mid-September after reading on air a press release by the TV Libre employees’ union, condemning alleged irregularities at the station. Fasano also owns TV Libre.
Between the night of 17 October and dawn on 18 October, Borrat was kidnapped by three armed individuals who assaulted him and threatened to kill him. The journalist suffered a number of cuts to his face and was warned to “get rid of the recordings in your possession.”
IAPA condemned the incident as a violation of the Declaration of Chapultepec, a list of ten principles on press freedom and freedom of expression, and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
