Miami (June 18, 2010).—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned a series of episodes against distributors of the newspaper Noroeste in Culiacán who have come under attack and threatened in recent weeks in the northwestern Mexico state of Sinaloa.
Seven incidents have been reported so far this month by employees in charge of distributing the newspaper. Some were threatened, others had their motorcycles or bicycles violently taken and one was shot at twice and wounded.
IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre expressed concern at the events, declaring, “Any action hindering the production of a news outlet, whether it be against its seeking or publishing information or disrupting its distribution, is a violation of the principles of freedom of the press.”
Aguirre, editor of the Miami, Florida, Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, added that the IAPA-inspired Declaration of Chapultepec in its Article 5 clearly establishes that “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press.”
The editor of Noroeste, Manuel Becerra Gonzalez, said that the violence against his paper is a result of local elections slated for July 4 and his paper’s criticism of the use of the facilities of the Sinaloa Autonomous University as the campaign headquarters by one of the candidates for chairman of the Culiacán City Council who is a former rector of that university.
Becerra ruled out that the theft of the distributors’ vehicles was the work of common criminals, as the attacks asked their victims who they worked for and when they said it was the Noroeste newspaper they were threatened and beaten.
The IAPA last week condemned direct attacks and threats to the owners of another newspaper in Sinaloa, El Debate, that were also linked to the election campaign.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org
