The 15 songs that were finalists in the music contest “Lend Your Voice For Those Who Have No Voice” held by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) as part of its international campaign to end impunity surrounding crimes against journalists have been recorded on a virtual CD available to the public on the Web site www.impunidad.com.

This project is part of a campaign by the IAPA directed at young people to make them aware of the consequences of such violence for free speech and press freedom.

IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21, praised the high artistic quality of the winning entries in the contest and offered thanks for the generous support of it by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which since 1995 has been funding the organization’s Impunity Project. “Without this support it would not have been possible to hold the contest,” he said.

The winners of the first three places were the ballad “No temas” (Don’t Be Afraid) by Argentine songwriter Juliana Casto; the poetical piece “Que no te incomode incomodar” (Don’t Bother About Bothering) by Laura Vargas of Uruguay, and the rap “Somos la voz” (We Are The Voice), the work of Colombian duet Javier Vargas and Liliana Jiménez. The disc also contains protest rhythms, hip-hop and tangos from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The musical event, launched in October last year by the renowned music producer Emilio Estefan, captured widespread attention throughout the Western Hemisphere, with more than 150 contestants in various musical genres, arousing the interest of nearly 300,000 people in the Americas, Europe and Asia, who followed it on the Internet and over social media – a public that had the opportunity to vote for their favorite theme and elect the finalists, with a 27-member international adjudication panel going on to pick the winners.

The virtual CD includes videos of the popular themes which through their rhythm helped publicize the contest – “No podemos callar” (We Cannot Be Silent), interpreted by Latin Black, “Problemática social” (Social Issue) with Gero Menezes and “Jaime Garzón” by Vibra Terra.