Miami (May 20, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed outrage at a new murder of a journalist, committed yesterday in a rural area of Guatemala, warning of “the greater risk that the press faces” in inland parts of countries in the Americas.

The Peruvian Attorney General’s Office on Monday, May 16 filed a formal request that the former mayor of Portillo, Pucallpa province, be sentenced to 20 years in prison on a charge of having been the mastermind of the April 21, 2004 murder of journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today voiced outrage at the murder of journalist Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco in Honduras and called on President Porfirio Lobo’s government to honor its pledge to protect the press and combat the impunity surrounding the murders of 10 Honduran reporters in recent months.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed outrage at the murder in El Salvador of cameraman Alfredo Hurtado and called on the authorities in the Central American nation to carry out a prompt and effrective investigation to determine who was responsible and what was the motive.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned the murder in Bolivia of journalist David Niño de Guzmán last week and called on the authorities of the South American nation to carry out an exhaustive investigation to determine who was responsible and the motive.

The families of Julio Daniel Chaparro and Jorge Enrique Torres, two journalists murdered 20 years ago today in a northwestern Colombian town, announced here that they plan to take the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), due to the fact that it is now subject to a statute of limitations in this country.

A pesar de que la Corte Suprema anuló a comienzos de este año la sentencia de la Tercera Sala Penal de Reos Libres que absolvió al ex alcalde de Coronel Portillo Luis Valdez, acusado del asesinato del periodista Alberto Rivera, y ordenó un nuevo juicio que debería ser llevado por un nuevo tribunal, la citada sala decidió encargarse del nuevo proceso a partir del 25 de abril.

The IAPA voiced concern at a statute of limitations being applied this week in two cases of murder of Colombian journalists and called on the authorities “to take appropriate action” to prevent the crimes remaining unpunished.

The IAPA today expressed concern at the murder of journalist Luciano Leitão Pedrosa in Pernambuco, Brazil, and urged the authorities to conduct a prompt investigation to identify those responsible, determine their motives and bring them to justice.

Impunity Committee Chairman Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz of the Mexico City, Mexico, newspaper El Universal, presented the report on the committee’s activities at the Midyear Meeting of the Inter American Press Association, detailing the intensive work being carried out by the organization to put an end to the guilty going unpunished.

Miami (April 1, 2011)—“As a song for life which shows you how to defend an ideal” is how an emotional songwriter from Mendoza, Argentina, Juliana Castro, described her ballad “No temas” (Don’t Be Afraid) which today was declared the winner of the international song contest “Lend Your Voice For Those Who Have No Voice” held by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) regarding the lack of punishment surrounding crimes against journalists and which aroused hemisphere-wide attention in bringing together more than 150 participants in various musical genres.

The IAPA welcomed the decision by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to order the preventive detention of two politicians as alleged masterminds behind the murder of journalist Orlando Sierra, calling the action “a strong move” against impunity.