“Of all the reasons that provoke violence against journalists, the most important one is impunity, it is the lack of investigation into the acts of violence and assassinations of journalists,” said Frank La Rue, UNESCO assistant director-general for communication and information, in a video commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, which takes place every Nov. 2.
For the second consecutive year, Mexico and Brazil are the only Latin American countries that are part of the Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which was published on Oct. 27.
September 10 marks one year since the murder of Colombian journalist Flor Alba Núñez in the city of Pitalito, in the department of Huila. In that time, her family, colleagues and organizations defending freedom of the press have fought to investigate the crime and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.
Less than 24 hours after the death of a journalist in Oaxaca, a reporter in Tamaulipas state has been killed by a group of armed men. She is the eighth journalist killed in Mexico this year.
Mexican reporter Elidio Ramos Zárate, who had been covering a teachers’ union protest in Oaxaca, was killed on June 19 while taking a photo of a robbery in-progress at a convenience store, according to newspaper El Universal.
In the span of a week, two respected journalists in Central America have died under mysterious circumstances. Journalists associations in Guatemala and El Salvador are calling on authorities to solve the deaths of television director Víctor Hugo Valdez and television producer Pedro Antonio Portillo, respectively.
Journalist Manuel Torres González, 45, was shot in the head from behind on May 14 after leaving state offices in the city of Poza Rica in northern Veracruz, as reported by Milenio, citing the Attorney General of Veracruz.
Journalist Francisco Pacheco Beltrán, correspondent of El Sol de Acapulco and radio station Capital Maxima 97.1FM, was killed on April 25 in front of his house in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero state, in Mexico. He is the fifth journalist murdered this year in the country.
After the killing of a blogger in Maranhão, freedom of expression nonprofit organization Article 19 Brazil has called on federal and state authorities to respond to violence against journalists in that state.
Depicting a funeral march, dozens of Honduran journalists marched with at least 60 symbolic coffins to the public prosecutor’s office in Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the deaths of journalists that have occurred in the country in recent years, reported newspaper El Heraldo.