At least 27 journalists and other media workers were murdered in the Americas for reasons that could be tied to their work during 2015. This was documented by the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in their 2015 Annual Report released on March 23.
“On Freedom of Expression and Protection of Journalists and Press Workers” was the bill presented on April 27 in Paraguay, a day after the country celebrated the Day of the Journalist, according to newspaper La Nación. The bill was announced at a press conference given by congresswoman and head of the Commission of Human Rights, Olga Ferreira de López and legislator Pastor Vera Bejarano, the newspaper added.
UPDATE (3/21/16): A former Colombian paramilitary fighter accused in the May 2000 kidnap, torture and rape of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima has been sentenced to 28 years in prison. Mario Jaimes Mejía, known as 'El Panadero,' accepted charges against him on Feb. 2. He was sentenced on March 18.
Almost 17 years after the murder of Colombian journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón, one of the country’s head prosecutors finally identified the killing as a crime of the state due to the participation of members of the Army and the defunct department of intelligence (known as DAS) along with a criminal organization.
A Salvadoran communication worker's recent murder is directly linked to his work, according to communications groups that have called on the government for a thorough investigation of the crime and protection for media workers.
The former mayor of Silao (in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico), Enrique Benjamín Solís Arzola, was arrested on March 11 for alleged involvement in the attack against journalist Karla Silva from newspaper El Heraldo de León in 2014. After a long hearing, the local court ordered Solís to be taken into custody for two months, a period in which to conclude the investigation against him.
According to witnesses, two people on a motorcycle fired eight shots at a car parked in the garage of Brazilian journalist Kenedy Salomé Lenk in the early morning hours of March 10, reported newspaper O Globo. The journalist, his wife and daughter were asleep inside the house at the time.
Brazilian radio host João Valdecir de Borba, known as Valdão, was killed on March 10 while working in the studios of Rádio Difusora AM in São Jorge do Oeste, southwestern Paraná state.
The Attorney General of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Guatemala decided to transfer the cases of two journalists murdered in 2015 to the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity (FECI for its initials in Spanish).
Mexico is experiencing a “serious human rights crisis,” according to the recent report “Situation of Human Rights in Mexico” from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). According to the organization, the high rates of forced disappearances, torture, citizen insecurity, restricted access to justice and impunity generate special concern.
About 96 percent of the murders of journalists and other media workers in Honduras remain in impunity, according to figures received by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that recently published the report “Situation of Human Rights in Honduras.”
Amid the controversy generated by the recent murder of a journalist in Veracruz and criticism against its governor Javier Duarte, the state leader published tweets linking Josele Márquez, alias 'El Chichi', with the killing and insisted that organized crime is the real enemy of the press.