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Activists call on Colombia to declare journalists’ deaths crimes against humanity

Press freedom activists have asked the Colombian attorney general to classify the 1991 deaths of two journalists investigating a massacre as crimes against humanity, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) reports via IFEX.

Journalist Julio Daniel Chaparro and photographer Jorge Enrique Torres for El Espectador newspaper were killed while working on a story about a paramilitary attack in 1988, which left 40 dead in the northeastern city of Segovia, Antioquia

FLIP sent a letter to Attorney General Viviane Morales to stress that it will have be 20 years without justice in the killings on April 24.

While the statue of limitations for violent crimes against journalists was increased from 20 to 30 years late last year, FLIP is worried that the killings of Chaparro, Torres, and several other journalists will remain unsolved if their cases are not reopened.

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.