By Ingrid Bachmann
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to act on its denunciation of the 1997 killing of Mexican journalists Benjamín Flores González. The newspaper editor's killing remains unpunished.
The IACHR had dismissed IAPA's original complaint in 2000, saying the local jurisdiction had not exhausted all its resources. IAPA recently resubmitted the case, presenting new evidence of irregularities in the investigation.
Flores González was editor of La Prensa newspaper in Sonora state and, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he was known for his aggressive coverage of the drug trade, including a story reporting that a half ton of cocaine confiscated by federal authorities had disappeared from a police headquarters. He was shot outside the newspaper's offices.
This week, the IACHR is conducting its 140th session of hearings. The schedule includes hearings on the situation of freedom of expression in Honduras, Bolivia and Ecuador, in addition to private meetings about freedom of information in Venezuela.
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.
