(IPI/IFEX) – In a 7 September 2001 letter to President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, IPI strongly condemned the killing of radio journalist Jorge Mynor Alegria. According to IPI’s sources, Alegria, host of a call-in programme on Radio Amatique, which broadcasts from the port of Puerto Barrios throughout Guatemala’s eastern Izabal district, was shot and killed near […]
(IPI/IFEX) – In a 7 September 2001 letter to President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, IPI strongly condemned the killing of radio journalist Jorge Mynor Alegria.
According to IPI’s sources, Alegria, host of a call-in programme on Radio Amatique, which broadcasts from the port of Puerto Barrios throughout Guatemala’s eastern Izabal district, was shot and killed near his house late on Wednesday 5 September. One man was arrested in connection with the killing, according to the police.
Alegria, who regularly denounced alleged wrongdoings by Izabal district officials on his weekday show and encouraged callers to air their complaints, had been receiving death threats for some time, colleagues said.
Unfortunately, the death threat remains one of the most widely used methods of silencing journalists, not only in Guatemala, but in much of the Americas.
In March, IPI wrote to President Portillo, expressing the organisation’s concern over the safety of Silvia Gereda, editor of the investigative unit of “elPeriodico”, as well as two reporters for the same daily, Luis Escobar and Enrique Castañeda, who received death threats after “elPeriodico” published stories about corruption at the state bank, Credito Hipotecario Nacional (see IFEX alerts of 2 April and 30 March 2001).
In May 2000, several reporters from “elPeriodico” were threatened while working on a story about a secret intelligence agency run by the Presidential High Command (Estado Mayor Presidencial) under the direction of Jacobo Salán Sánchez, a retired military officer. One of the reporters was followed by a car without licence plates, while others received threatening telephone calls. Other journalists covering the military in 2000 also reported receiving threatening phone calls, including a journalist for the daily “Nuestro Diario” and two reporters for the daily “Siglo Veintiuno” (see IFEX alerts of 30, 24 and 23 May 2000).
Although such threats are all too often the precursor to murder, the authorities seldom take them seriously. Given Guatemala’s tragic history of violence against journalists, the failure to act upon these threats is all the more alarming.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– urging His Excellency to authorise an immediate and thorough investigation into this latest incident and to do everything in his power to ensure the safety of journalists working in Guatemala
Appeals To
His Excellency Alfonso Portillo Cabrera
President
Casa Presidencial
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Fax: +00502 239 00 90
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
