The Inter American Press Assn. criticized the Obama Administration for clamping down on freedom of the press through its policy of surveillance and spying of journalists.

The Miami-based organization of 1,400 journalists released a resolution this week during its annual assembly in Denver that railed against the “secret seizure of telephone records of Associated Press reporters by the U.S. Justice Dept.”

“The IAPA shares the concern of like-minded organizations in the United States over the direction of press freedom in this country, which has been shaken by revelations of spying on journalists and others,” reads the resolution.

Gary Pruitt, AP president, told the conference “how fear of government surveillance has led some its sources to engage in self-censorship.”

The IAPA knocked Congress for failing to pass a shield law to “protect the confidential nature of sources—one that would prevent journalists from ending up behind bars.”

The organization also noted the 14 reporters would killed in Latin America during the past six months, marketing the highest death toll in 20 years.

Mexico topped the list with three murders. Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti trailed with two each, while a journalist was killed in Ecuador, Honduras and Paraguay.

IAPA noted that press freedom is adversely affected by the mass-scale acquisitions of media outlets by governments or allies in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina.

The purpose of those deals is to transform public service media into partisan pro-government propaganda tools.

Ecuador was singled out as the country with the “harshest form of censorship,” while economic reform in Cuba has not led to any improvement in press freedom there, according to the resolution.