By Joseph Vavrus
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual Impunity Index, which ranks three Latin American countries among those where killers of journalist regularly escape justice, The Associated Press reports.
The index measured the rate of unsolved journalist killings from January 1, 2001 until the end of 2010 and listed Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil among the 13 countries worldwide with more than five unsolved cases.
Colombia (5th worst) while showing its “fourth consecutive year of improvement,” still has 11 unsolved killings over the last decade, including the March 2010 shooting of newspaper editor Clodomiro Castilla Ospino. Already in 2011, more than a dozen journalists have been declared “military targets” by paramilitary groups, and, on May 26, guerilla forces are suspected of trying to kill an investigative reporter.
Mexico (8th) continues to slide down the rankings as more than 60 journalists have been killed over the last 10 years, largely connected to drug trafficking violence and organized crime.
Brazil (12th) returned to the list due to its failure to solve the October 2010 killing of investigative journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros.
For the full list see the CPJ website and read the full report in PDF form here.
Other Related Headlines:
» Inter American Press Association (Impunity Project)
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
