Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the fact that two years after the killing of brother-and-sister journalists Verónica and Víctor Hugo Peñasco, Bolivia’s justice system still has not tried anyone for the murder, even though the prosecution originally arrested ten suspects.
After finding the body of Mexican reporter Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz on Feb. 11, Veracruz state authorities said the kidnapping and killing were likely motivated by personal vengeance -- something other journalists are finding hard to believe, the Associated Press reported.
A day after the death of Bandeirantes TV’s cameraman Santiago Andrade on Feb. 10, Brazil’s Minister of Justice José Eduardo Cardozo met with the leaders of the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (Abert), the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) and the National Association of Magazine Editors (Aner) to discuss ideas on how to improve the safety of journalists, according to Agência Brasil.
Journalists in several Mexican states and other countries continue to demand the safe release of Veracruz reporter Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, kidnapped on Feb. 5, through public protests in multiple cities and social media campaigns, according to newspaper El Universal.
In a new report published last week, PEN International, PEN Canada and the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law lamented Honduras’ transition to a life-threatening place where crimes against journalists often go unpunished.
Last Friday Judge Yvickel Dabresil accused nine persons – several of whom were close to former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide – of being involved in the 2000 murder of well-known journalist Jean Leopold Dominique. At the time, Dominique was openly critical of Aristide’s re-election, Reuters said.
Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti announced last week the launch of a plan to ensure the protection of journalists in the country, according to Europa Press.
In Guyana, journalists avoid putting their names in bylines and media outlets share and publish their original investigative pieces simultaneously to further protect reporters from violence, according to an International Press Institute interview with Julia Johnson
In a recent interview with the International Press Institute (IPI) and Transparency International (TI), Mexican journalist Jorge Carrasco, safety and justice correspondent for news magazine Proceso, spoke about the 2012 killing of her colleague Regina Martínez
In the last 20 years, 670 journalists have been killed in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to delegates from the IFEX-ACL alliance, which recently presented their Annual Report on Impunity 2013