Impunity - Mexico

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WHEREAS efforts to have the federal government assume jurisdiction over crimes against journalists are being pushed back in the Mexican Congress, as evidenced by a proposal signed by the leaders of all parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies, though this proposal was defeated in the Justice Committee, which considered the matter WHEREAS the Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Against Journalists is ineffective in that it does not have authority to charge and prosecute those responsible for crimes against journalists, going against the hope in the battle against impunity that had been raised following its creation WHEREAS a clear example of impunity is the murder of United States journalist Philip True in 1998 in Jalisco, where the two persons convicted of the crime are at large and have not be re-arrested WHEREAS the IAPA maintains a record of reporters murdered since 1987, in the majority of which cases all those responsible have not been arrested, placed on trial or been convicted, the authorities of the states of Chihuahua, Michoacán, Guerrero, Veracruz, Coahuila, Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora, Nuevo León, Chiapas, Mexico, Federal District, Morelos, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca and Tabasco being responsible for the majority of the cases continuing to go unpunished WHEREAS principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly” THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to remind the Mexican Congress of the commitment undertaken to make crimes committed against journalists federal offenses and to urge the change in the Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Against Journalists, because otherwise the legal modifications would be insufficient to demand that the Federal Executive restructure the Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Against Journalists and apply rigor in choosing those who belong to it, so that there will be a real pursuit of prosecution and justice to reiterate to the Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office that it arrest the two persons responsible for the murder of journalist Philip True, so as to put an end to the impunity in this case to call upon the State Attorney General’s Offices of Chihuahua, Michoacán, Guerrero, Veracruz, Coahuila, Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora, Nuevo León, Chiapas, Mexico, Federal District, Morelos, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca and Tabasco to investigate the cases of murder and disappearance of journalists that they have under their jurisdiction so as to identify those responsible and bring them to justice, an essential condition for putting an end to impunity and encouraging the free practice of journalism to insist to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Against Journalists that it review all the cases of the murder and disappearance of journalists in the country, bring them under its jurisdiction, investigate them and report in a serious, transparent and clear manner on each of the cases, so as to comply with its mission to obtain justice and combat impunity.

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