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InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA) report calls on countries to protect reporters and shield sources Mar.19.- Press freedom in Latin America is being hurt by some leftist governments' intolerance of criticism and a spate of drug mafia-ordered murders of journalists in Mexico, according to reports issued at a newspaper industry meeting. In country reports presented yesterday to the InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA), representatives from Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia said the governments of their countries had become especially hostile toward the press. Mexico had an alarming number of deaths: seven journalists murdered since October, two disappearances and eight cases of reporters receiving death threats. ...
The IAPA, whose members include more than 1,300 newspapers from
Patagonia to Alaska, has been holding a four-day semiannual meeting in
[Cartagena] that ends today. ... [ full text ] ... several governments have turned openly hostile to media critics, and violence against journalists remains real, as five have been killed in the last six months. This trend makes more urgent the need for IAPA to continue to tirelessly uphold press freedoms. Greatest concern continues to emanate from Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has consolidated his grip over much of the broadcast media through so-called “gag” laws, and from Cuba, where independent journalists remain jailed or muzzled by the Fidel Castro government, as they have for more than four decades. ... [ full IAPA press realease ] |
