Translated by Stuart Taylor
Mexico has been considered the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist for several years in a row. The reasons for this may well lie in the backdrop of violence, which has caused conflicts to break out between organized crime groups, and the atmosphere caused by the declaration of war that Felipe Calderón announced in 2006.
But the roots of this problem can also be found in a corrupt political and journalistic environment; impunity for the guilty; the fusion of political power and organized crime; media owners and editors’ disinterest in protecting reporters; the failure of an official strategy to combat an international phenomenon; the Government’s indifference in investigations; and also the absence of cohesion within the profession, among others.
It is absurd that in the period of the so-called transition of the democracy, which in the end only turned out to be a change in political party, is when more cases of murdered and missing journalists have been recorded in Mexico. According to data revealed last December by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), from 2005 to date 82 journalists have been murdered and a further 15 are missing.
For 7 years all of the international organizations that protect journalists, even the UN and the OAS (Organization of American States), have published reports and recommendations urging attacks on journalists and the media to stop.
In a final report on a mission carried out in 2010 in Mexico to evaluate the situation of the country’s press, representatives from the UN, Frank La Rue, and the OAS, Catalina Botero, pointed out that Mexico was the most violent country towards journalists on the American continent, and the country that faces most difficulties in exercising freedom of expression.
La Rue then went on to say that
“there is a lack of interest. That is what impunity is: the absence of justice, and that is something for which the state is responsible, especially regarding the media, in my opinion, who have been more critical about cases of corruption or abuse of fiscal authority. It would appear that the Government and the security authorities simply do nothing, thus creating a more hostile and risky environment for journalists.”This situation has not changed with the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) return to power. The organization Article 19 revealed in its latest report that at least 43% of the attacks against members of the press came from civil servants at the three levels of government and only 14% are attributed to organized crime.
Furthermore, it highlights its worry that despite the existence of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE), from December 2006 until December 2011 its personnel were aware of 265 attacks against journalists and only one case ended in a conviction.
Meanwhile, the CNDH criticizes their ineffective action on protecting journalists and defending freedom of expression through the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. Between 2006 and 2013, 384 investigations were launched into complaints of attacks on the press. The Protection Program issued a recommendation in only 6% of the cases. In 8% conciliation work was carried out and in the remaining 86% of the cases nothing was reported.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York has highlighted in its latest report that Mexico has the most number of missing journalists in the world, with 12 in the last seven years, which offers yet another indicator of the critical safety situation for Mexican reporters.
These reports and many others describe the instability, lack of protection and unsafe conditions in which many journalists work in several states. Similarly, they describe the impunity that allows the powerful political parties and drug traffickers to function in order to silence the media. Take, for example, the case of Veracruz, where PRI governor Javier Duarte has established a regime of control and fear with the idea of controlling the flow of information in his state.
Much like a viceroy, the governor of Veracruz is trying to bury his head in the sand by denying the unsafe situation that plagues the state. In little over two years of management, nine journalists have died in that state, aside from the fact that a group of reporters and photographers has immigrated due to the threats received from both criminal groups and politicians which, when all is said and done, are essentially the same thing.
In the case of our colleagues, Regina Martínez, who was murdered a year ago, and Jorge Carrasco, who is now receiving threats from security personnel in Veracruz, they are obvious examples of the impunity with which these government groups act against any attempt to truthfully inform the people about what is happening in the state.
Today, Veracruz and Tamaulipas are the most dangerous states for journalists. As long as impunity, corruption and the desire to control the press carry on, unfortunately Mexico will remain the most dangerous country in the world in which to practice the respectable profession of reporting. Spanish original