•HRES 536 EH 
ganization, Fundamedios, for exceeding its corporate 
charter, but the government relented in the face of inter-
national criticism and potential economic reprisals; 
Whereas in the country, forced corrections by the government 
have become a means of institutional censorship; 
Whereas according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the 
world for the press; 
Whereas in Mexico, over 50 journalists have been killed or 
have disappeared since 2007, at least 11 reporters have 
been killed since 2011, 4 of them in direct reprisal for 
their work; 
Whereas according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 
at least four journalists have been killed in Brazil in 
2015, many times after being tortured and having their 
bodies mutilated; 
Whereas Evany Jose´ Metzker, a political blogger in the state 
of Minas Gerais who had been investigating a child pros-
titution ring, was found decapitated outside the town of 
Padre Paraı´so; 
Whereas according to the Organization of American States 
(OAS) 2014 Annual Report of the Inter-American Com-
mission on Human Rights, journalists covering protests 
in Venezuela were subject to assaults, obstruction, deten-
tion, raids, threats, censorship orders, and confiscation or 
destruction of equipment; 
Whereas, on April 21, 2015, a lawsuit within the 29th Dis-
trict Tribunal of the Metropolitan area of Caracas 
charged the journal El Nacional and its Chief Editor 
Miguel Henrique Otero for ‘‘reproducing false informa-
tion’’ and was forced to flee Venezuela;
•HRES 536 EH 
Whereas the Honduran national human rights commissioner 
reported that eight journalists and social communicators 
were killed as of September, compared with three in 
2013, and dozens of cases in which journalists reported 
being victims of threats and persecution; 
Whereas according to the OAS 2014 Annual Report of the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, members 
of the media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 
stated the press ‘‘self-censored’’ due to fear of reprisal 
from organized crime or corrupt government officials; 
Whereas in Colombia, there were 98 incidents of violence and 
harassment against journalists, 30 were physically at-
tacked, and 45 were victims of harassment or intimida-
tion due to their reporting; 
Whereas members of illegal armed groups sought to inhibit 
freedom of expression by intimidating, threatening, kid-
napping, and killing journalists; 
Whereas national and international NGOs reported that local 
media representatives regularly practiced self-censorship 
because of threats of violence from these groups; 
Whereas according to the OAS 2014 Annual Report of the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, through-
out 2014, Guatemala presented accounts of cases of har-
assment and the filing of several criminal complaints 
against a newspaper that criticized the Administration; 
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country Re-
ports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 in Nicaragua, 
the government continued to use direct and indirect 
means to pressure and seek to close independent radio 
stations, allegedly for political reasons;
•HRES 536 EH 
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country Re-
ports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 in Argentina, 
a survey released of 830 journalists throughout the coun-
try indicated 53 percent of respondents worked for a 
media outlet that self-censored content; and 
Whereas almost half the journalists surveyed said they self- 
censored in their reporting on the national government: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports a free press in Latin America and the 
Caribbean and condemns violations of press freedom and 
violence against journalists; 
(2) urges countries in the region to implement rec-
ommendations from the Organization of American 
States’ Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of 
Expression to its Member States; 
(3) urges countries in Latin America and the Carib-
bean to be vocal in condemning violations of press free-
dom, violence against journalists, and the culture of im-
punity that leads to self-censorship; 
(4) urges countries in the Western Hemisphere to 
uphold the principles outlined in the Inter-American 
Democratic Charter and urges their neighbors in the re-
gion to stand by the charter they are a party to; and 
(5) urges the United States Agency for Inter-
national Development and the Department of State to
•HRES 536 EH 
assist, when appropriate, the media in closed societies to 
promote an open and free press. 
Attest: 
Clerk.