62nd
General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 to October 3, 2006
Camino Real Hotel
Reports and Resolutions
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IMPUNITY
ECUADOR, GUYANA, PARAGUAY, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND VENEZUELA
Resolution of the Midyear Meeting
Quito, Ecuador
WHEREAS
in Ecuador on February 14, photographer Raúl Suárez Sandoval,
who worked with the newspapers La Hora Durandeña and La Prensa de Durán,
was murdered in the province of Guayas
WHEREAS
in Ecuador on February 13, radio journalist José Luís León
Desiderio was also murdered, after denouncing delinquency and criticizing the
inefficiency of local police in his program “Opinión” on
Radio Minutera in Guayaquil
WHEREAS
in Guyana on January 30, Ronald Waddell, former television host on HBTV, channel
9, a well-known critic of local politics, was murdered
WHEREAS
in Paraguay, Enrique Ramón Galeano, who hosted programs on the radio
stations Yby Yaú and Parque, of Yby Yaú, 350 kilometers north
of Asunción, has disappeared since February 4, and that in this country
aggressions and threats against journalists have intensified
WHEREAS
in the Dominican Republic, the murders of Gregorio García on March 28,
1973; Orlando Martínez on March 17, 1975; Narciso González on
May 26, 1994 and Juan Andujar on September 14, 2004, have thus far gone unpunished
WHEREAS
in Venezuela, the murders of Mauro Marcano on September 1, 2004, and Jorge Tortoza
on April 11, 2002, have never been resolved
WHEREAS
Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes: “Freedom of expression
and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation,
the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence
of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly
and punished harshly.”
THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to exhort the authorities of Ecuador to investigate, attribute responsibilities
and bring to trial the material and intellectual authors of the crimes against
journalists Suárez Sandoval and León
to call upon the authorities in charge in Guiana to investigate who ordered
and carried out the crime and to bring those responsible to trial
to insist to the authorities of Paraguay that they should intensify their search
for Galeano until he is found, as well as offering guarantees and security to
journalists in the face of the new wave of crimes produced by organized crime,
officials and police
to ask the authorities in the Dominican Republic to be more effective in their
investigation into assaults on active journalists and to ask the criminal justice
authorities to pursue the prosecution of crimes against journalists that remain
unpunished
to reiterate to the authorities in Venezuela the need to pursue the investigation
and subsequent prosecution of those who murdered the journalists
to remind States that it is their obligation to investigate and punish those
guilty of crimes against journalists because they constitute a violation of
freedom of press and expression.
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