Violence against the press in Latin America: Protections and remedies in international law

This article identifies a trend in international law addressing the murders of journalists in Latin America. Recent cases by international human-right s tribunals are analyzed for their holdings that murders of journalists vio late the free-expression guarantees of the American Convention on Human Rig hts, the hemisphere's leading human rights treaty. These rulings required g overnments to investigate attacks on the press in good faith, punish journa lists assailants, indemnify journalists' survivors, and protect journalists working in war zones, This article concludes that this international case law, though developing slowly, offers a new weapon in the fight against ven geful and violent attacks on the press.