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Alert

IAPA calls for action in unsolved murder of journalist

(IAPA/IFEX) - The following is a 27 April 2006 IAPA press release:

IAPA CALLS FOR ACTION IN UNSOLVED MURDER OF JOURNALIST IN BRAZIL

MIAMI, Florida (April 27, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on newspaper readers throughout the Western Hemisphere to add their signatures to a public letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inâcio Lula da Silva seeking his collaboration to help solve the January 14, 1998 murder of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira.

Six bullets took the life of the editor of the newspaper A Região in Itabuna, Bahia state, Brazil, where he had exposed corruption and wrongdoing in the local city government involving politicians and the police. A police officer was found guilty of carrying out the murder and was sentenced to 18 years in prison, but on a writ of habeas corpus he was freed pending the outcome of his appeal. Meanwhile, the investigation into the murder has failed to identify who was behind the crime.

The IAPA is conducting a hemisphere-wide campaign titled "Let's Put An End to Impunity" so that the 280 murders of journalists in the last 17 years not continue to go unpunished. Interactive ads are appearing in more than 340 newspapers throughout the Americas, inviting readers to join the campaign by going to the Web site http://www.impunidad.com where they can sign a letter seeking action form the authorities.

Since the campaign was launched in March 2003, the newspapers taking part have published 38 such ads, resulting in some 25,000 unique hits a month on the Web site.

The initiative is also disseminated by radio stations, thanks to the involvement of the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB).

The hemisphere-wide anti-impunity campaign, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also consists of investigative reporting programs, training of reporters working in areas of risk, and the monitoring of the state of press freedom in the Americas.