Inter-American Press Association urges to redouble efforts for the safety of journalists

The president of the Inter American Press Association (SIP), Michael Greenspon, defended the need to redouble efforts next year in favor of the safety of journalists, respect for press freedom and greater access to public information.

In this context, the SIP regretted that 2022 will go down in history as one of the most violent years for the press in the Americas, with 42 journalists murdered in 10 countries.

It should be noted that at least 11 of these deaths occurred in Mexico, placing our country as the second most violent place for communicators.

In the case of Mexico, in 2022 the homicide of Margarito Martinez Esquivel, photojournalist murdered on January 17; the death of Lourdes Maldonado López, a collaborator in various Baja California media, attacked on January 23; Roberto Toledo, from Monitor Michoacan, assassinated on January 31; Heber López Vázquez, director Web News from Oaxaca, assassinated on February 10.

As well as the death of Juan Carlos Muñiz, from Testigo Minero, on March 4; Armando Linares López, editor of Monitor Michoacan, who was attacked on March 15; Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, editor and columnist for reliable sources y The debatewho was assassinated on May 5.

In addition to the murders of Yesenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana García Olivera, journalists for El Veraz, whose deaths were reported on May 9; the deadly attack on June 29 against Antonio De la Cruz, a journalist for Express Press and the murder of Fredid Román, on August 22.

In a message for the end of the year, Greenspon added that the scourge of violence and the lack of resolution of crimes against journalists generate a deep fissure in journalistic activity and a threat to democracy in our region that we must combat.

“We warn about the worrying and frank decline in press freedom. We base our sentence on the murders, but also on the attacks, the exile of 29 communicators due to political persecution and the imprisonment of another 15,” said IAPA.

Michael Greenspon recalled that throughout the year the SIP took actions to try to neutralize these violations of press freedom, including visiting Washington, to alert the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and US agencies about the restrictions on human rights in Nicaragua and Mexico. “We also denounce the serious consequences for democracy if the media continue to disappear, in the face of the indifference of governments, multilateral agencies, companies, digital platforms and civil society.”

Thus, the international organization maintained that all its projects and commitments for 2023 will be focused on the principles of the Chapultepec and Salta declarations, which “scream that there can be no true democracy without press freedom or without sustainable and independent media.”

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