The IAPA praised the decision by the Colombian Attorney General’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions to act on its request to identify, review and activate the cases of 27 journalists murdered countrywide. One case reactivated, four more under legal review, six reassigned to Bogotá.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are to join forces to together fight crimes against journalists and violence reigning in Mexico, staging an international mission here on September 22 and 23 in which the leaders of the two organizations will meet with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón and other federal officials of the executive and legislative branches of government.

MIAMI, Florida (August 30, 2010)—Journalists throughout Mexico have come together to urge authorities to being those guilty of the murder or disappearance of journalists – some 70 in the last decade – to justice.

Honduras President Porfirio Lobo has promised that his government will intensify investigations into crimes committed against journalists in his country.

The IAPA denounced the murder of journalist Israel Zelaya Díaz in Honduras. This is the eighth such crime this year and is believed to be linked to his work as a reporter. The organization urged authorities to act diligently to identify the responsible for this murder and others committed over the past two years.

Walid Makled, a member of a powerful business family in the central state of Carabobo and the presumed instigator of the January 2009 murder of journalist Orel Sambrano, was arrested in the Colombian city of Cúcuta on 20 August on a range of charges including drug trafficking.

With a roundtable discussion in Mexico City on working as a journalist in the face of the violence unleashed by organized crime the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) today were winding up an online training course in which 125 journalists had been taking part.

Mexico City, Mexico— United Nations Rapporteur Frank la Rue insisted on the need to make crimes committed against journalists to be made federal offenses and for there to be compliance with the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission and thus deal with attacks upon journalists.

MEXICO CITY -- More than 1,000 Mexican journalists marched through the city center Saturday to protest the killing and disappearance of their colleagues as escalating drug violence increasingly targets reporters.

Elizeu Felicio de Souza, known as Zeu, was filmed openly selling drugs in the Morro do Alemão shantytown in Rio de Janeiro. De Souza had been sentenced to 23 years and six months in prison for his involvement in the 2002 murder of Tim Lopes.

The IAPA welcomed the arrest of three believed to be linked to last week’s abduction of four journalists in the Mexican state of Durango and highlighted the importance of swift action in safeguarding the victims’ lives.

El secuestro la semana pasada y posterior liberación de cuatro periodistas en México provocó que las denuncias de violencia e impunidad, reiteradas desde hade muchos años por la SIP y otras organizaciones internacionales que vigilan la libertad de expresión y de prensa, partieran también desde los propios medios de comunicación de la capital. Un programa de la principal cadena de televisión de país, suspendió el 29 de julio su emisión semanal por los reporteros retenidos en Durango, y los cuestionamientos, análisis, sugerencias y llamados a la unidad sobre cómo enfrentar la violencia del crimen organizado que principalmente venía afectando a medios de comunicación y periodistas del interior del país y era seguido de lejos, ha puesto en estado de alerta a toda la prensa nacional e internacional.