MIAMI, Florida:

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has called for newspaper readers throughout the Americas to add their signatures to a letter demanding that those found guilty of the murder of Argentine news photographer, José Luis Cabezas, serve their prison sentences in full.

The letter is to be addressed to the Chief Justice of the Buenos Aires, Argentina, provincial Supreme Court, Daniel Fernando Soria.

Cabezas was killed on January 25, 1997. Those charged with the murder were freed from detention on the orders of an appeals court, a decision overruled by the provincial Supreme Court, which held that they should be returned to prison, thus not allowing them to literally get away with murder.

In the letter, newspaper readers ask Chief Justice Soria to take action to ensure that the full weight of the law is brought to bear so that the guilty complete their sentences in full.

Hemisphere-wide campaign

The IAPA's hemisphere-wide campaign 'Let's Put an End to Impunity in Crimes Against Journalists', funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has as its objective that none of the 321 murders of journalists committed in the Americas in the last 18 years should go unpunished.

In addition to those killed, six reporters have gone missing and their whereabouts remain unknown.

For more information, go to www.sipiapa.org.