The IAPA stressed that growing violence against journalists is the main challenge facing the free press in the Americas

The half-year meeting of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), held virtually from April 19 to 21, concluded that “growing violence against journalists is the main challenge facing the free press in the Americas.”

In his final report, he stated that, “in the last six months, 15 journalists were killed (10 in Mexico, three in Haiti, one in Guatemala and one in Honduras). Thirteen of that total, in the first three months of 2022.”

“Impunity for these crimes remains worrying. This year they will prescribe nine cases of murders against journalists that occurred in 2002 in Colombia,” the IAPA text remarked.

He later lamented that “in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, journalists and the media are unusually victims of the persecution and repression of totalitarian governments”; while noting that “the attacks include the imprisonment of eight journalists: six from Nicaragua — three reporters and three managers from La Prensa — and two from Cuba. Another 77 journalists were forced into exile: 75 from Nicaragua and two from Cuba.”

This week, the Inter-American Press Association approved a resolution on Nicaragua, in which 27 national and international press organizations adopt a plan of action to restore freedoms of the press and expression as essential guarantees for restoring democracy in that Central American nation.

“The independent press suffers from systematic persecution, widespread oppression and censorship there, atrocities resulting from the kidnapping of public powers and the demolition of civil society structures,” the IAPA said.

“The government imprisoned opponents, persecuted dissidents, shut down civil society organizations, expelled journalists and confiscated universities and media,” the resolution states, exposing some of the atrocities perpetrated by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

The action plan includes, among other things, “requesting multilateral organizations to condition the granting of credits and non-humanitarian aid until the government releases political prisoners, returns the facilities to La Prensa, Confidential and 100% Noticias; allow the return of media and journalists from exile and offers guarantees for its work, as established by the Inter-American Democratic Charter”.

Nicaraguan embassies in each country will be called upon to release political prisoners, including journalists Miguel Mora, Miguel Mendoza and Jaime Arellano, as well as members of the board of directors of La Prensa Cristiana Chamorro, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, the IAPA reported in a statement.

The confiscations of Confidential and 100% Noticias, which occurred before this semester, were added that of La Prensa, also in Nicaragua, and that of El Nacional, in Venezuela, he recalled.

In another order, he said that arson attacks against four media outlets, two in Argentina and two in Colombia, were also of concern. “Journalists from Cuba, El Salvador and Venezuela were subject to digital surveillance. The government of Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador, used Pegasus software to monitor journalists and media outlets. The Nicolás Maduro regime, in Venezuela, blocked Internet portals and censored access to the network in general, using international telecommunications companies,” the IAPA denounced.

He then said that “the reform of the penal code in Cuba aggravates penalties for contempt of authority, creates crimes to penalize social media users and punishes with imprisonment and fine the 'clandestinity of publications'. Restrictive projects emerged in Aruba, with the media law, and in El Salvador, with the anti-gang statute that criminalizes media and journalists.”

Another focus of attention is the multiplication of presidential stigmatisations, also practiced by other authorities and leaders in Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, said the IAPA, called on private companies to boycott the media by refraining from hiring advertising. In Peru, the Prosecutor's Office initiated investigations against journalists for reports on the Lava Jato case and other coverage of public corruption.

“The Peruvian president and his ministers repeatedly threaten critical media that they will not receive official publicity. Threats due to critical content also occurred in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico,” he explained.

On another highlight, the IAPA denounced the “serious judicial harassment” that “took place in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.”

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