Inter American Press Association

(IAPA/IFEX) – On 23 January 1998 the Inter American Press Association’s (IAPA) Executive Committee expressed outrage at the murder of eight journalists in the past three months, three of them in Brazil, three others in Colombia and one each in Guatemala and Mexico. It called on the governments of those countries to do everything in […]

(IAPA/IFEX) – On 20 November 1997, Jairo Elias Marquez, 40, director of the magazine “El Marquez”, was killed in the city of Armenia, 190 kilometres west of Bogota, as he was getting into his car. Marquez had received repeated threats on his life. According to IAPA, Marquez is the seventh journalist killed this year in […]

(IAPA/IFEX) – The dismembered body of Alejandro Jaramillo, 67, was discovered in Pasto, a town in southeastern Colombia, on 1 November 1997. Jaramillo had joined the staff of “Diario del Sur” in Pasto two months ago and reported on crime and judicial issues. He had previously worked for the newspapers “El Pais”, “El Caleno” and […]

The Colombian government has instituted an official censorship decree aimed at television news programs in the country. The National Television Committee (CNT) ordered the programs to abstain from transmitting non-official information that “aggravates public order.” The CNT took this step on 23 August 1996 in response to news programs which aired coverage of clashes between […]

IAPA urged the Mexican government to suspend a 150 percent rise in import duties on newsprint. The import duties on newsprint were raised from 6 to 15 percent, according to reports that appeared in the official Mexican government publication on 26 June 1996, the date on which the executive decree took effect. IAPA called the […]

IAPA is concerned at accusations made by the government of Panama against journalists as well as national and foreign media outlets, following numerous news reports of alleged irregularities in the government’s last electoral campaign. President Ernesto Perez Balladares and other civil servants accused journalists and media outlets, including “La Prensa”, “The New York Times”, “The […]

A new Executive decree declared a series of documentes relating to public security to be “state secrets.” The decree was signed by Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and entered into effect on 3 May 1996, when it was published in “La Gaceta”, the official government newspaper. It declared as state secrets documents dealing with […]

Federico Fassario, editor-in-chief of the Montevideo daily “La Republica”, and Carlos Fassano, managing director of the daily, were arrested on 23 May 1996 on charges brought against them by Paraguayan President Juan Carlos Wasmosy. The two were sentenced to two years in jail for insulting the honour of a foreign head of state (“atentado contra […]