Human rights defenders exposed to the IACHR an increase in violations of the press in Latin America

SAN SALVADOR – At least 25 human rights organizations expressed their concern over the increase in violence against the press in the Latin American region in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Wednesday.

Paula Saucedo, from the organization Voces del Sur, said that Latin America is currently the deadliest and most dangerous region for the press.

“Since 2018 we have registered 83 murders, of which 39 were committed in 2022 alone. This means a growth of 225% when compared to the 12 cases that occurred in 2021,” he said at the hearing “Protection of defenders and journalists in the region “.

According to Saucedo, in 70% of the attacks on the press in Latin America, the States are the perpetuators. “The press is also subjected to illegal deprivation of liberty, exile, judicial harassment, threats, physical attacks, and stigmatization,” he added.

In 2022, there were 4,699 alerts for violations of press freedom in the region. “This means that in Latin America and the Caribbean journalists are attacked every two hours for exercising their profession,” said the defender.

Likewise, the director of the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press, Jonathan Bock, said that the political leaders of the region constantly apply a stigmatizing discourse against the press.

“In 2022, the Voces del Sur network reported 897 alerts for speech stigmatizing you against journalism. This weakens public debate and the plurality of ideas. In addition, it encourages violence against journalism and disinformation online, since it is the authorities who use social networks to generate mistrust among citizens and undermine the legitimacy of the media, ”he said.

A complicit judiciary

The organizations maintained that, in the region, there are no justice institutions that can investigate and deal with violence against journalists and human rights defenders. And that in several cases, it is the same Judiciary that participates in these violations of rights.

“In Guatemala, in 2022, 10 cases of criminalization and harassment by the Judicial Branch of the press were registered. In El Salvador, there was a warning about legal reforms that criminalize journalists who cover acts of gang violence. In the case of Honduras, from 2001 to 2022, 96 journalists were murdered and only 10% of the cases were prosecuted,” said Angélica Cárcamo, president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES).

Cárcamo added that in most Latin American countries there is no independence in the prosecutor’s offices. The human rights defender gave the example of Mexico, a country in which she pointed out that the impunity rate for crimes against the press is almost 98%. In Colombia, it is 99% around complaints of threats.

Cárcamo recalled, before the IACHR, that the safety of journalists is a state obligation that involves prevention, protection, and the prosecution of justice.

Some of the requests that the organizations made to the IACHR were: the cessation of judicial persecution against journalists, the freedom of journalists who are still detained and that the Joint Action Mechanism IACHR – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , publish a report on good practices and technical recommendations to be adopted by protection institutions in Latin America.

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