The IACHR issued legal protections in favor of the digital newspaper El Faro and its journalists against threats, harassment, intimidation, as well as criminalization and stigmatization by Nayib Bukele’s government.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has enacted legal protections in favor of the digital newspaper El Faro and its journalists against threats, harassment, intimidation, as well as criminalization and stigmatization by the Nayib Bukele government.
The IACHR, one of the main organs of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the promotion and defense of human rights, has imposed precautions on the State of El Salvador given the “seriousness, urgency and irreparability” of the events, ranging from threats, discrimination, discrediting through state media and other hostilities.
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In light of this, it demands that the government of Nayib Bukele take the necessary measures to protect the lives and integrity of 34 people who make up El Faro, and to “exercise their journalistic activities in exercise of their right to liberty. of expression without being subject to intimidation, threats and harassment ”.
The government must submit a report on the measures taken to investigate the alleged events that led to the taking of this precautionary measure to prevent its recurrence.
For this it gives you a period of 15 days and the obligation to report on this periodically.
The IACHR clarified that these provisions do not bias the potential violation of the rights protected in the US Convention and other applicable instruments.
The precautions oblige the state to protect life and integrity from any attack. This means not only protecting them from any attack or attack, but also refraining from any action by the state apparatus that could seriously endanger their lives and integrity.
They also imply the obligation of the state apparatus and its officials to refrain from any act of intimidation, threat or hindrance to journalism and investigative work.
They imply that, through the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution, and not through any other state body, such as the executive branch, the state should investigate impartially and exhaustively, identify the material and intellectual perpetrators and assess those alleged to be responsible.
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In addition, it means that effective measures must be taken so that the accused events are not repeated. The punishment of those responsible for material and intellectual property and the publication of the truth is just one of those measures of non-repetition that must be taken, among other things, ensuring the eradication of impunity for events of this kind that are not only of influence the newspaper digitally, but for the entire independent journalistic union of the country.
The precautions taken do not constitute a final judgment in the case, but rather urgent measures to be taken by the state to avoid serious and irreparable harm to the persons benefiting from the measures.
The Inter-American Commission (IACHR) is the principal body of the OAS responsible for promoting and defending human rights across the Americas. Know and verify the human rights violations that have occurred in all countries of the continent. It receives complaints from victims and from civil society organizations and determines the responsibility of states for said violations. The Commission is the only body that can refer cases of human rights violations to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of the OAS that judges and convicts states for human rights violations.