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Campaigns and Advocacy

Newspaper readers join IAPA anti-impunity initiative

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (December 18, 2009) - Newspaper readers in Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Panama and other countries in the Americas have enthusiastically joined an initiative of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) that through banners in online newspapers invites them to take part in its campaign demanding justice to be done in the cases of murder of journalists.

The newspapers of the Western Hemisphere are collaborating in this endeavor to the public good which enables Internet users to go directly to the Web site http://www.impunidad.com to add their signatures to a petition that is sent to the president of a country where a murder remains unpunished. The IAPA has noted a massive increase in visits to its Impunity Web site as a result of the banners carried in the press of the Americas.

Among newspapers taking part in the banner initiative are El Nacional, Venezuela; Clarín, Argentina; El Imparcial, Hermosillo, Mexico; El Universal, Mexico City; Diario Las Américas, Miami, Florida; El Deber, Bolivia; Hoy, Ecuador; La Prensa, Honduras; La República, Peru; La Estrella of Panama, and ABC Color of Paraguay, a number that is increasing day by day.

The campaign titled "Let's Put an End to Impunity" is part of one of the IAPA's missions. In the Americas there have been more than 350 murders of journalists in the last two decades that continue to go unpunished, 2009 being one of the most violent years, with 22 news men and women killed.

The Impunity Project, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in addition to this initiative includes investigation of such murders, training reporters in reducing risks in covering the news, monitoring of freedom of the press, and advocating justice and governmental legal action to aid in combating impunity.