IMPUNITY/MEXICO I

WHEREAS in Mexico freedom of expression and the people’s right to be informed is undergoing a critical situation which puts at risk one of the fundamental rights on which any democracy is founded WHEREAS journalists and news media in half of the Mexican territory are victims of an alarming state of threats, kidnappings and murders on the part of various powers-that-be WHEREAS an indication of this serious situation was the abduction in Tamaulipas state of eight journalists, five of whom remain missing, two are in safe places and one died as a result of having been tortured WHEREAS another evidence of the serious situation existing in Mexico is that in the last four months six journalists have been murdered and a female reporter has been missing since last November, without the authorities showing any serious progress to date nor have they determined which of the crimes is connected to the victims’ work as journalists WHEREAS in states such as Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, Michoacán, Guerrero, Veracruz, Nuevo León and Tabasco journalists are experiencing a worrisome state of fear and lack of confidence in facing high degrees of corruption of officials that should be protecting them and the constant threats that they are receiving, due to which self-censorship has extended and increased. WHEREAS the greatest failure of the government, both federal and state, is that it has not complied with its obligations to provide and administer prompt and effective justice, which has resulted in an increase in the levels of impunity WHEREAS as an outcome of the mission that the IAPA had in Mexico in February the executive branch of government, through the Interior Ministry and the Attorney General, pledged to bring about changes in the investigation, treatment and prosecution of attacks on journalists WHEREAS the Attorney General’s Office has still to rule on cases that it has had under its jurisdiction in the Office of Assistant Attorney General for Special Investigations and Organized Crime (SIEDO), in the Special Prosecutor’s Office and in its regional offices since 1997 to date concerning attacks on journalists and news media WHEREAS the Interior Ministry pledged to the IAPA mission to act on the resolutions issued by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights regarding the murder of journalists Héctor Félix Miranda and Víctor Manuel Oropeza, which were accepted by the Mexican government and that the Foreign Ministry along with the Baja California and Chihuahua State Public Prosecutor’s Offices left to one side WHEREAS the Public Prosecutor’s Offices in Mexican states where there have been serious attacks on journalists are showing little or no progress in investigations in murders, disappearances of and threats to news men and women 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 demand that the Mexican government immediately employs a complete, clear and in-depth strategy for freedom of expression and the people’s right to be informed to be guaranteed to call on the federal and state authorities to commit to not allowing attacks on journalists to continue and for impunity not to continue prevailing to urge the Mexican government to employ all its powers and resources for the journalists kidnapped in Tamaulipas to be rescued alive and for those responsible to be brought to justice and receive exemplary punishment to appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Offices in the Mexican states where there have been initial inquiries into attacks on journalists and news media, such as in the case of Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Michoacán, Guerrero, Mexico State, Tabasco, Morelos, Nuevo León, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Jalisco and the Federal District, for them to attend to these cases, investigate them and bring the culp[rits to justice to urge the Interior Ministry to comply with its commitment to act on the resolutions issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to urge the Mexican Attorney General to speed up the investigations and show results in the various initial inquiries that are in its hands and make the results known, establishng a policy of information about the violent incidents that occur in the country to urge the Mexican Attorney General to order the Special Prosecutor’s Office For Dealing With Crimes Committed Against Journalists to review the cases of murder and disappearance of journalists committed 20 years ago and which are in the hands of the state authorities so that a strategy of assistance and coordination may solve the cases and bring those responsible to justice or, as the case may be, be taken up by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. to call on Mexican Congress and in particular the Special Committee for Following Up Attacks Upon Journalists and News Media to come up with a serious plan of action that would include making crimes against freedom of expression federal offenses, that there be no statute of limitations and such offenses be treated as aggravated crimes, as this orgnaization has been demanding for 15 years now.