Mexico

A climate of concern at violence and impunity surrounds the Mexican press. In this period five journalists were murdered in the country, already regarded as one of the most violent places to work as a journalist. The attacks have not only been carried out against journalists, but also against news media installations, as occurred in Saltillo, Coahuila state, at the offices of the newspaper Vanguardia, at which hand grenades were hurled in May, causing substantial damage. Each attack upon the press is one on the state of law, as is the lack of action and passivity on the part of the authorities in the face of such aggressions. The National Human Rights Commission says that this is why the government should be called on to commit to concrete actions to guarantee journalists’ protection of their lives and personal integrity, as well as the public’s right to information. A total of 10 murders of journalists have been reported so far this year, bringing to 76 the number since 2000. In this period one of the developments of major impact occurred on June 20 in Veracruz, when Miguel Ángel López Velasco, a columnist with the newspaper Notiver, was murdered alongside his son Misael López Solana, who worked as a photographer, and his wife Agustina Solana. Five reporters with that paper decided to leave town because of the lack of guarantees for their protection. Among the other journalists killed were Noel López Olguín and Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz of Veracruz; Humberto Millán Salazar of Sinaloa and María Elizabeth Macía Castro of Tamaulipas. - Noel López Olguín, who went missing on March 8 and was a columnist with the Jáltipan newspaper La Verdad, was found dead on June 1 near that town in Veracruz state. - Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a reporter who covered the police beat for the Veracruz local paper Notiver, was tortured and her lifeless body found on July 26. - Humberto Millán Salazar, editor of the online newspaper A Discusión and host of one of the news programs on Radio Fórmula in Sinaloa, was found dead in a farm field on August 25. - María Elizabeth Macías Castro, publisher of a newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was found dead on September 25. The whereabouts remain unknown of several journalists, among them Alfredo Jiménez Mota of El Imparcial, missing since April 2005. On July 7 during her visit to Mexico United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was appalled at the state of increasing violence against journalists and stressed that such crimes cannot go unpunished. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR) Special Rapporteur’s Office for Freedom of Expression expressed its deep concern at the state of violence against news men and women in Mexico and urged the authorities to thoroughly investigate these murders and identify, prosecute and convict those who planned them and carried them out. The IAPA complained of the failure of the federal government to ensure the safety of reporters and to pursue a reform for crimes against journalists to be treated as federal offenses and that they not be subject to any statute of limitations. It also raised this issue with the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Against Journalists during its Universities Hemisphere Conference held in late August in Puebla, criticizing the lack of concrete actions to solve some one hundred crimes committed in the last two decades. Gustavo Salas, Special Prosecutor for Dealing With Offenses Committed Against Freedom of Expression, reported that the north was the region where the largest number of murders of journalists had taken place. According to his report, Chihuahua, Guerrero and Tamaulipas states were the most dangerous places for journalists, with 50% of the crimes being committed there, while Michoacán is the region with the largest number of disappearances of journalists. There is a growing risk for the media and journalists resulting from the prevalence of drug trafficking, a phenomenon characterized by threats and pressures from municipal and state governments that protect organized crime groups, representing a serious threat for the safety of journalists and for the free exercise of freedom of expression. These narco-politicians receive enormous funding for their political campaigns during the elections, which then produces a state of impunity where protection is given to organized crime groups and where no protection is offered for the free exercise of journalism and where crimes against journalists and the media go uninvestigated. Among other developments have been the following: - Three reporters from Mexico City, who were at the offices of the Veracruz Forensic Medical Service taking testimonies and photographs of people searching for their family members among 35 murder victims on September 20, were beaten and threatened by officers of the Veracruz Investigation Agency. - On July 2 a group of unidentified persons threw the bodies of two decapitated men against the building of the Noroeste and El Debate newspapers in the port of Mazatlán. - On September 15 the IAPA denounced the murder of two Mexican youths, executed in apparent reprisal for their exposure of drug trafficking on social media.