By Samantha Badgen
Several journalism organizations in Guatemala called President Otto Pérez to push for legal mechanisms to guarantee the safety conditions necessary to allow journalists to perform their duties. The demand comes after four journalists have been killed and 60 assaulted and threatened in the last 15 months.
“Legal mechanisms for the protection of journalists should be applied so they can exercise their right to inform society of what is going on in the country,” the organizations said, according to news agency AFP.
The journalists also demanded an end to the “rampant” impunity in the country and asked that crimes committed against journalists, especially the four killings that took place last year, be investigated and cleared up.
The demands were published in a press release on Tuesday Mar. 25, which was signed by the presidents of the Guatemalan Association of Journalists, Guatemalan Chamber of Journalism and the Association of Sports Journalists.
A recent article published by Cerigua (Center of Informative Reports about Guatemala) noted that press freedom in Guatemala has deteriorated in the past few years, with 14 attacks against the press already in 2014, compared with seven in the same period of time last year.
“During 2013 the Journalists’ Observatory documented 54 attacks against the press, in comparison to 36 in 2013 and 33 in 2011; the increment in attacks means more insecurity for the journalistic profession,” Cerigua said.
Last year Guatemala launched a new plan to guarantee the protection of journalists in the country.
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.
