Miami (March 25, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed strong condemnation of the murder in Mexico of a television program host, called for solidarity among news media and urged the government of President Felipe Calderón to comply with its commitment to make crimes against journalists federal offenses and to ensure the safety of news men and women.

MIAMI.- The call made to lyricists and singers by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) to take part in a song contest denouncing the impunity reigning in the Americas in crimes against journalists managed to arouse the sensitivity of hundreds of young artistes and songwriters, who entered their compositions in the event, which today has 22 finalists selected and placed before an international adjudication panel that will announce its decision on April 1.

The Peruvian Press Council (CPP) has requested that the new trial of those allegedly involved in the murder of Alberto Rivera Fernández be held by the National Criminal Court, whose authority to try cases of crimes against journalists was widened by the Judiciary Branch’s Executive Council last November.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (March 11, 2011)—The Honduras government reported today that the National Police have arrested those allegedly responsible for the murder of four journalists in the Central American country, while investigations are moving ahead to solve seven other such crimes.

MIAMI, Florida (March 10, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today welcomed a decision by courts in El Salvador to sentence 11 gang members as perpetrators and accomplices in the September 2, 2009 murder of Franco-Spanish news photographer Christian Poveda.

Organizations defending the right to information and specialists in freedom of expression in Mexico expressed their concern at the constant threats and attacks on journalists and at the state of violence unleashed against the press. They also felt that Mexican journalists are killed “for almost any reason.”

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) this week presented its investigation titled “Organized Crime, The Information In Its Hands,” whose conclusion points to the fact that currently organized crime has become the main “predator” of reporters in the world. These groups outside the law are said to be those responsible for the murder of 141 journalists between 2000 and 2010.

The Inter-American Human Rights Court is to look into the possibility of pronouncing sentence this week against the government of Uruguay in a case related to the forced disappearance in 1976 of María Claudia García Iruretagoyena de Gelman, wife of Marcelo Ariel Gelman, an Argentine freelance journalist living in Uruguay, murdered that same year.

Colombia’s Attorney General Viviane Morales Hoyos has announced that she will beef up the anti-journalist crimes unit so as to expedite investigations into threats that members of the press have received in that South American nation. 

The IAPA expressed repudiation of the murder of a press worker and attacks on two news media outlets in the Mexican state of Coahuila and urged the authorities to conduct an immediate investigation. It also issued a public call on President Felipe Calderón to honor his pledge to pursue legal reforms to put an end to the violence unleashed against media and individual journalists.

The IAPA praised Peru’s Supreme Court decision to overturn the acquittal and order a new trial for the main defendant charged in the 2004 murder of journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández.