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Freedom Of Speech

December 14, 2006
More Dispatches from the War against Journalists

Before he left office on December 1, Mexican president Vicente Fox lauded big strides against authoritarianism and intolerance during his 6-year administration. Besieged by murder, violence and intimidation, many Mexican journalists are wondering what country Fox was talking about in his homilies.

“We are up to our ears hearing how freedom of the press was one of the great accomplishments,” wrote Veracruz state’s Mundo de Cordoba newspaper in a recent editorial. “In reality, what was gained was to put us in the dishonorable first place position on the list of the most dangerous countries in the Americas to exercise journalism.” Nine Mexican and foreign journalists have been murdered in Mexico so far this year, six of them since October. Three other Mexican journalists have disappeared in 2006.

El Mundo’s “Law of the Jungle” editorial followed death threats against two journalists employed by the newspaper: photographer Saul Contreras and reporter Rafael Saavedra. On separate occasions, both men were recently the targets of threats presumably because of their investigations about organized crime. Contreras complained of being the victim of pointed death threats by gun-toting men in Suburban and sedan vehicles who pulled alongside him on a Cordoba street earlier this month and shouted, “Right now, you’re going to die, you son-of-a-bitch!” Heavy passing traffic at the time of the incident may have saved the photographer’s life.

In light of the November 28 murder of Adolfo Sanchez Guzman, the former Televisa correspondent in Orizaba, Veracruz, Contreras and Saavedra did not consider their experiences idle threats and quickly filed legal charges with the local district attorney against “whomever is responsible.” Two men have been arrested in the Sanchez murder, which authorities deny happened because of Sanchez’s journalistic activities.

Embroiled in political conflict, Oaxaca state continues being an especially dangerous place for freedom of expression. On December 8, indigenous columnist and attorney Raul Marcial Perez of El Grafico newspaper was gunned down by assailants in a murder which was rapidly condemned by the Paris-based Reporters without Borders. A former indigenous activist leader, Marcial was a prominent critic of the administration of Governor Ulises Ruiz.“Raul was very critical of Ulises Ruiz’s government,” said Issac Olmedo, El Grafico’s director. “Lately, he devoted the majority of his columns to the social movements in Oaxaca, and cited the names of those responsible for the conflict.”

In an apparently unrelated incident the day after Marcial Perez’s murder, an unnamed reporter for the El Imparcial newspaper in Oaxaca City was allegedly beaten by state judicial policemen after he attempted to interview State Judicial Police Director Manuel Moreno. Meanwhile, Graciela Atencio, an Argentine national who once worked as an editor for the Ciudad Juarez daily Norte,recently denounced that she was threatened with deportation from Mexico after taking a stand about events in Oaxaca. The veteran communicator and women’s activist accused the chief of the state-run Oaxaca Women’s Institute of issuing the threat after Atencio resigned from the government agency to protest the occupation of Oaxaca City by the Federal Preventive Police.

On December 11, the day after International Human Rights Day, the Mexico City -based Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) and the Not One More campaign issued the Declaration Against Violence Towards Journalists and for Freedom of Expression in Mexico. Initially signed by 230 Mexican and US journalists, the statement demanded serious investigations of crimes against journalists, as well as an end to criminal defamation and other laws that hinder reporting. It also took aim at journalists who fall into the temptations of corruption.

Sounding off the alarm bell about the breakdown of respect for the rule of law and freedom of expression, the declaration noted that “every day more media adopt self-censorship as a legitimate way of staying safe,” all to the loss of society and its right to information.

To publicize the statement, journalists and their supporters staged protests in 11 Mexican and US states. Regarded as the most dangerous place in Mexico to engage in reporting, journalists in the northern border state of Tamaulipas did not dare make a public showing. Instead, they were supported by colleagues who delivered a message to the Mexican Consulate in McAllen, Texas. Among other actions, journalists in Mexicali delivered the declaration to state government offices in Baja California Norte. Convened in memory of recently deceased Tijuana journalist Jesus Blancornelas, the cross-border action was the first public protest against violence towards journalists during the new administration of President Felipe Calderon.

While murders, beatings and death threats get the most publicity, Mexican journalists confront other difficulties that frequently land them in trouble. Defamation lawsuits and court subpoenas are two tactics commonly employed to silence the press. In recent weeks, journalists Xochitl Narcisco Martinez of Inter Diario de la Costa Chica and Zacarias Cervantes of El Sur and Milenio newspapers in Guerrero state were arrested for stories they had reported.

Despite an adverse climate, Mexican journalists chalked up a victory this month when commissions in the Mexican Senate approved a resolution urging that defamation be classified strictly as a civil and not a criminal offense. Supported by Senator Rosario Ibarra, the head of the Senate’s human rights commission, and Dr. Jose Luis Soberanes, the president of the National Human Rights Commission, the measure could be enacted into law before the Senate breaks for the winter holidays. Passage of the law would help bring Mexico into compliance with a recommendation from the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that obstacles to freedom of expression in the country be eliminated.

“To speak about freedom of the press can sound frivolous,” editorialized Veracruz’s Mundo de Cordoba newspaper, “but it is precisely by means of it that the people are able to confront corruption, impunity and the culture of violence, which are the principal problems that face our country.”

Sources: Cepet.org, December 11, 2006. Press release. El Universal, December 9, 12 and 14, 2006. Articles by Jorge Octavio Ochoa, the Notimex news agency and editorial
staff. El Sur, December 12, 2006. Article by Ezequiel Flores Contreras. Proceso/ Apro, December 6 and 13, 2006. Articles by Soledad Jarquin Edgar, Regina Martinez and
Manuel Robles. La Jornada, December 5 and 11, 2006. Articles by Andres T. Morales, Notimex and editorial staff.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico



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