Nine years ago Orlando Sierra, managing editor of the Manizales newspaper La Patria, was returning from lunch with his daughter when a hitman took his life. 

Diana Turbay died on January 25, 1991 in a police operation in which she received a mortal gunshot wound to the back. On August 30, 1990 Diana went out with five other people, among whom were a cameraman, a German citizen and three journalists, who came to a ranch in Copacabana, Antioquia, where they were held by men under the command of Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín Cartel, who had set a trap for them.

MIAMI, Florida (January 27, 2011)—Some 50 singers and lyricists have registered to take part in the “Lend Your Voice For Those Who Have No Voice” contest organized by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), submitting sung or written entries calling attention to the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists committed in the Americas.

A three-year investigation into the 2002 kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl has identified 27 Pakistanis that played a role - most of whom have escaped justice.

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The IAPA praised legal reform in Colombia that will be more effective in reducing the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists by increasing the statute of limitations in such crimes to 30 years.

The Telemundo television channel’s program “Al Rojo Vivo” (Red-Hot) on January 13 broadcast a report on “the danger of being a journalist,” in which the obstacles and risks news men and women have to face in many countries in the Americas are described.

Honduras—Officials of the State Attorney’s Office in San Pedro Sula reported today they have identified those responsible for the murder of journalist Israel Zelaya, popularly known as “Chacatay.”

The IAPA is showing a series of videos on the impact of violence and the risks that journalists face in the area known as the tri-border zone where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet.

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office has charged Orlando Villa Zapata, a.k.a. “Rubén,” the second former military chief of the self-defense movement’s Bloque Vencedores de Arauca (Arauca Victors Bloc) with being allegedly responsible for ordering the March 18, 2003 murder of journalist Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada.

The Switzerland-based organization Press Emblem Campaign reported that a total of at least 106 journalists were murdered in 2010.

With a positive balance in its battle against lack of punishment for crimes against journalists in Latin America the Inter American Press Association’s Impunity Committee wound up its program for 2010, having focused its activities especially in conjunction with the organization’s Rapid Response Units in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, as well as in Peru.

The IAPA expressed outrage at the murder in Honduras of journalist Henry Suazo which brought to nine the number of newsmen killed in the Central American country this year. The majority of the murders remain unsolved.