November
5, 2007
Mexico: Call for Precise Account of Investigations into Disappearances and Murders of Journalists
Reporters Without Borders
October
31, 2007
Mr.
Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco
Special Prosecutor for Crimes Committed Against Journalists
General Prosecutor for
the Republic, Mexico City
Dear
Mr. Prosecutor,
The
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) meeting in Washington on 18 July 2007, at the initiative of nine human rights
and press freedom organizations - including Reporters Without Borders - ended in a strong commitment being given by attending
representatives of the Mexican federal government:
• strengthening the rights of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Committed
against Journalists (Fiscalia Especial para la Atención de Delitos cometidos contra periodista - FEADP), which you have headed
since February this year;
• federal level handling of these types of cases;
• regular reports to the IACHR on progress in ongoing investigations;
• an association of organizations specialized in follow-up of investigations;
Other commitments were made in relation to community and electronic media.
There
has certainly been progress towards freedom of expression as a result of recent developments in federal legislation aimed
at decriminalizing press offences. President Felipe Calderon’s promise made in October to “federalize” the
handling of attacks against the media is a partial response to the commitments made at the IACHR meeting.
These
efforts however cannot allow us to forget the scandal of impunity surrounding the murders of 32 journalists and the disappearance
of seven others since 2000. Mexico ranked as the second most dangerous country in the world for the press after Iraq in 2006,
a year in which nine journalists were killed.
The
investigation into the murder of Brad Will, a young cameraman on the alternative news agency Indymedia, gunned down on 27
October 2007 during major political and social unrest in Oaxaca, revealed dysfunction at various levels of government. The
journalist’s family told Reporters Without Borders that the federal justice system had simply endorsed the conclusions
of the local investigation in Oaxaca, that he had been killed at point blank range by militants of the Popular Assembly of
the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), although the hypothesis is not seriously backed up by any evidence or any witness. A number
of accounts rather point the finger at police and local officials.
This
case demonstrates the need for investigations to be taken over at the federal level, far from political pressure from certain
governors and their aides. To this effect, the “federalization” of criminal investigation of attacks on the press
should start as quickly as possible.
Other
cases of murders and disappearances illustrate the most basic difficulty police and the courts have in striking at the heart
of criminality: At least half of the journalists killed were murdered for looking a little too closely at the scourges of
drug-trafficking, smuggling and corruption. These cases include: Alfredo Jiménez Mota, of the daily El Imparcial in Hermosillo,
who went missing on 2 April 2005; Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of the daily La Opinión, killed on 8 April 2005 in Veracruz state,
a case in which the main suspect arrested, Martín Rojas, alleged leader of a petrol-smuggling gang, has never gone on trial;
Enrique Perea Quintanilla, founder of investigative monthly Dos Caras, Una Verdad, found tortured and murdered in Chihuahua
state on 9 August 2006, a state whose government last September rejected a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission
(CNDH) after three journalists were assaulted.
The
year 2007 brought a fresh supply of tragedy to the ranks of the press. To the murders of Amado Ramírez, of Televisa, in Acapulco
on 6 April this year and of Saúl Martínez Ortega, of the magazine Interdiario and the daily Cambio de Sonora, on 23 April,
must be added three disappearances in January and May, Not one of these cases has been solved or brought to trial.
On
the eve of the Day of the Dead, Reporters Without Borders joins with Mexicans to pay tribute to their journalists. In line
with promises made before the IACHR, the organization looks to you for a precise account of the progress of the on-going investigations
and strong measures to put an end to impunity.
I
trust you will give this request your careful attention.
Yours
sincerely,
Robert
Ménard
Secretary General
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Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has
nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives
in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24209
