After 43 years, finally justice for four IKON journalists in El Salvador

The conviction was achieved thanks to the courageous and sustained efforts of family members, colleagues,  human rights organisations Asdehu and Communicandonos, and the Dutch embassy for Central America in Costa Rica. They did not accept the story that the journalists had ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks to their persistence, it was proven that the killing of the four journalists was deliberate and premeditated. The intellectual author of the murder, ex-colonel Mario Reyes Mena, was convicted yesterday for his role in the crime. To this day, he remains in the US, where a civil litigation has been initiated against him as well.

Free Press Unlimited observes that the conviction is unique in many ways: in the vast majority of cases in which a journalist is murdered, the intellectual author is never convicted. The decades of delayed justice are characteristic of these cases, but in this case, the delay was not left without consequences: the court condemned the state for its role in frustrating the trial. According to the verdict, El Salvador must formally seek forgiveness from the victims. Finally, as the Salvadoran organisations write, the case is ‘a key moment in the fight against impunity’ for crimes committed during El Salvador's civil war (1980-1992). The conviction is the first of the cases examined by the UN Truth Commission in 1993, and the first in which high-ranking military personnel have been convicted for their role in committing serious crimes and human rights violations.

The conviction gives hope to hundreds of journalists' families, who, like the families of the four IKON journalists, have been fighting for justice for years. The recognition that the families of Koster, Kuiper, Willemsen and ter Laag were unjustly made to wait four decades, is important, and sets a precedent for the other cases in El Salvador that are still waiting for an outcome. Free Press Unlimited calls on El Salvador to follow up on the ruling as soon as possible by requesting the extradition of Reyes Mena and by expressing apologies and requesting forgiveness from the families.

The case highlights the importance of concerted and sustained efforts in cases where a journalist has been killed because of their work. As Asdehu en Communicandonos write: “the impunity of yesterday, is the impunity of today”. Free Press Unlimited therefore continues to fight for justice in “cold cases” of journalist killings worldwide in its project ‘A Safer World for the Truth’ in collaboration with lawyers, human rights organisations and journalists - so that impunity does not get the last word.