The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Colombian Association of Newspapers (ANDIARIOS) will recommend a series of legal reforms in Colombia aimed at waging a more strenuous and effective battle to combat the lack of punishment surrounding crimes against journalists.

The judicial forum to be held September 2 in the Colombian capital of Bogotá in conjunction with the country’s newspaper association, ANDIARIOS, will be co-chaired by IAPA Vice President Enrique Santos and Gonzalo Marroquín, chairman of the organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information,
The meeting will present proposals to magistrates, judges, public prosecutors and representatives of the Attorney General’s Office to reform public policy on the legal and practical investigative levels to reduce the number of unpunished crimes against journalists.

“INJUSTICE REWARDED: A review of impunity in crimes against journalists under Colombia's accommodating penal system Analysis of the proceedings against the murderer of Orlando Sierra”, authored by renowned Colombian jurists Rodrigo Uprimny, attorney and director of Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society, and Guillermo Puyana, an expert lawyer on news media legislation, will be the forum's working document.

The paper, at the suggestion of the host organizations, is based on irregularities in the legal proceedings against the murderers of Orlando Sierra, with particular focus on the reduced sentence granted to the principal perpetrator, Luis Fernando Soto Zapata, who was sentenced to 19 years and six months’ imprisonment but released after just five years, eight months and eight days behind bars. The investigation by Uprimny and Puyana concludes that in the Sierra case legislative inconsistencies, errors in deciding the length of the prison terms and subjective issues concerning judges and prosecutors led to a “justice system that rewards” and “can lead to forms of relative impunity in serious crimes.”

The case of Orlando Sierra, managing editor of the Manizales newspaper La Patria who was murdered on January 20, 2002 in retaliation for his exposure of corruption involving local politicians, became the subject of renewed international interest in 2007 when the IAPA produced the documentary “La batalla del silencio” (The Battle of Silence) concerning the impunity that surrounded his death.

Panel speakers who will review IAPA and Andiarios' recommendations for public policy reforms include Colombian Constitutional Court President Humberto Sierra Porto, Supreme Court Chief Justice Francisco Javier Ricaurte, Inspector General Edgardo José Maya Villazón, Attorney General Mario Germán Iguarán Iguarán, federal legislators and members of the Executive Branch.

News media executives and journalists from Bogotá and around the country will participate along with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission’s Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Colombian attorney Catalina Botero Marino, who is due to take office on October 13.

In addition to Santos and Marroquín and ANDIARIOS Executive Director Nora Sanin the IAPA will be represented by Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti and Rapid Response Unit Reporter Diana Calderón.

This judicial forum is a follow-up to the Hemisphere Conference on the Judiciary, The Press and Impunity held by the IAPA in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, July 18-20, 2007. It forms part of the work of the IAPA’s Impunity Committee, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.