By Maira Magro
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) asked the Brazilian government and legislators to approve a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow killings and attempted killings of journalists to be judged at the federal level. IAPA issued a declaration and sent to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Congress members a letter signed by newspaper readers from across the continent.
The proposal is based on ideas debated at the forum "Failures and Shortcomings of Justice: How to Prevent Impunity for Crimes Against the Press," organized in May in Rio de Janeiro by IAPA in conjunction with the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Rio de Janeiro.
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.
