With a positive balance in its battle against lack of punishment for crimes against journalists in Latin America the Inter American Press Association’s Impunity Committee wound up its program for 2010, having focused its activities especially in conjunction with the organization’s Rapid Response Units in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, as well as in Peru. Among the most noteworthy developments were the following:

In Brazil, the Bahia state government marked a milestone in paying reparations to the family of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira, murdered in 1988, thus publicly acknowledging the government’s responsibility for having failed to safeguard press freedom and the life of the editor of the A Região newspaper. (See more at www.impunidad.com/noticia.php?id=645&idioma=us.)

Meanwhile in Colombia a legal reform provides for lenghtening to 30 years the statutes of limitation in bringing those responsible for crimes against journalists to trial. For his part, the Colombian Attorney General promised to reopen 27 cases of murder of newsmen that remain unpunished. (See more at www.impunidad.com/noticia.php?id=644&idioma=us.)

In Mexico, the Special Proseuctor’s Office for Dealing with Offenses Committed Against Freedom of Expression was created in July. President Felipe Calderón at a meeting with the IAPA and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) pledged to raise on the public agenda the issue of press freedom, redoubling efforts to ensure the safety of reporters and pursuing legal reform to make crimes against journalists federal offenses. (See more at www.impunidad.com/noticia.php?id=643&idioma=us.)

Finally, in Peru in early December the Peruvian Attorney General’s Office ruled that the National Criminal High Court and the Lima Provincial Criminal Tribunals were now empowered, in addition to their existing functions, to hear cases of homicide, murder, serious inmury, kidnapping and extorsion committed against journalists in doing their work. The decision was what the IAPA and the Peruvian Press Council had been calling for in recent years. (See more at www.impunidad.com/noticia.php?id=637&idioma=us.)