The murders of journalists, which this year are already at 36 deaths in Latin America, will be one of the central issues of the 78th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) that meets this month in Madrid, Spain.
The challenges are many, as recognized by the organization that brings together hundreds of media outlets on the American continent, arguing that in addition to violence they must deal with other challenges for the sector.
“The sustainability of the media as a necessity cannot be postponed for the journalistic industry, and the violence that has already claimed the lives of 36 journalists in the Americas this year will be the main issues,” SIP announced through a statement from its headquarters in Miami, United States.
Mexico has become the deadliest country for journalists. The observatories of Reporters Without Borders, Article 19 and the IAPA count 18 community members murdered in the Aztec country so far in 2022, as well as two forced disappearances.
This year is already considered the deadliest for the practice of journalism in Mexico, but there is also growing concern about harassment and attacks on the press in other parts of the American continent.
The IAPA also expects at its annual meeting, from October 27 to 30 in Spain, to review the “violations of press freedom in the Western Hemisphere and the situation of journalists imprisoned and persecuted by authoritarian regimes.”
The Assembly will open space to exiled journalists so that they expose their situation as well as to relatives of the victims of abuses to the informative work.
In recent days, exiled journalists from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua exposed at an event held at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) the situation for exercising journalism in hostile environments of growing “authoritarianism in the region.”
The communicators stated that the patterns are repeating themselves and that the risks increase as “authoritarian models” multiply in different countries.
In the Mexican case, the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is already emerging as the most critical with 36 communicators murdered in the almost four years of management and 2022 is undoubtedly the most lethal year.
“In the vast majority of cases, impunity is almost total,” reported Reporters Without Borders in its newsletter. Other Latin American countries where murders of journalists have been recorded include Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Paraguay.
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