FOCUS ON THE AMERICAS - International Press Institute

In some cases, this connection is not immediately
visible. In other cases, reports about
journalists’ deaths are vague and contradictory
as a consequence of the widespread
self-censorship and external pressures on
media outlets reporting on crime.
The circumstances behind the death of
Jorge Rábago Valdez, a journalist with
Radio Rey and Reporteros en la Red, and
the Reynosa-based daily La Prensa, have
yet to be clarified. According to local authorities
in Reynosa, Rábago died of natural
causes as a consequence of a diabetic
coma. Other sources say that the journalist
was abducted on February 19 as he left a
party and was found on February 23, after
he had been dumped on a highway in
Matamoros. The sources say that the journalist
was found alive but unconscious and
with signs of torture. Rábago was delivered
to a hospital, where he died on March 2.
Two journalists have been missing since
April 2010, joining the more than
10 journalists who have disappeared in
Mexico since 2003, according to local press
freedom groups.
Ramón Ángeles Zalpa, a correspondent for
the newspaper Cambio de Michoacán, was
last seen on April 6 at 1 pm, when he left
home by car to go to the National Pedagogical
University, where he teaches, according
to the newspaper La Jornada. In his over ten
years’ experience as journalist, Ángeles reported
on politics, crime and environmental
issues. Ángeles had recently covered an attack
by an armed group against a local family
in Michoacán.
Evaristo Ortega Zárate, the editor of the
weekly paper Espacio in the town of Colipa,
Veracruz, has been missing since April 20.
Ortega, who was also a mayoral candidate
for the town of Colipa, sent an SMS message
to one of his sisters saying that he had been
abducted in a police car. Ortega was known
for his reporting on crime and investigations,
and for criticizing the local authorities.
His reporting helped turn Espacio, founded
in 2004, into a successful local newspaper.
Over eight months after the journalists’ disappearance,
Mexican authorities have not
given any information about their fate.
At least 13 journalists were abducted in
Mexico this year, according to reports, and
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later released. However, the number of abductions
may be greater, as in many cases
news outlets chose to keep the abductions
confidential and deal with the abductors, to
save the journalists’ lives.
Four journalists were abducted in Durango
State in July. The abductors demanded press
coverage of videos they had made in exchange
for the reporters' release. The four journalists
were released after being held for six days.
Ulises González García, the editor of the
weekly La Opinión de Jérez, was kidnapped
from his home on July 29 and released on
August 9.
Eight journalists were abducted in separate
incidents between mid-February and early
March, according to local press freedom
groups. They were all released, in some cases
after the abductors’ requests were met.
Attacks against journalists and media outlets
in Mexico also took many other forms,
and organized crime groups were not the
only perpetrators. In many cases, police
and state authorities manhandled journalists
who were covering public protests
or at crime scenes. In some cases their
equipment was destroyed by authorities
to prevent coverage.
Finally, attacks against the premises of
media outlets are common and often serve
as warnings or threats of greater attacks if
the outlets do not submit to the demands of
local criminal groups or individuals.
Recommendations
• Combat impunity by providing adequate
resources and authority to the Office of
the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against
Journalists, of the Office of the Attorney
General of the Republic, and to local prosecutors´
offices.
• Amend legislation to make crimes against
freedom of expression a federal offense.
• Create a national system dedicated to the
protection of journalists and guarantee
the participation of journalists and civil
society organizations in its planning, operation
and evaluation.
• Repeal criminal defamation laws.
• Implement legislation regulating the allocation
of radio and television frequencies
in a fair manner, and thus limit concentration
of media ownership in the broadcasting
sector.
Mexico in Brief
Population: 110.6 million
Domestic Overview:
Mexico has the second largest economy
in Latin America. However, poverty remains
endemic, with approximately
47 per cent of the Mexican population living
below the poverty line.
The government is based on a federal system
and it includes 31 states and one federal
district (Mexico City).
Crime and violence are widespread,
mostly in connection with powerful
Mexican drug cartels that control some
areas of the country. It is reported that
over 28,000 people have died in drug-related
violence since 2006. The areas near
the U.S. border are the most dangerous.
But violence has also ravaged other parts
of Mexico.
Beyond Borders:
Mexico is a major drug producer and a
transit nation for drugs produced elsewhere.
In 2008, the U.S. and Mexican government
signed into law the Mérida Initiative,
involving security cooperation between
the United States, Mexico and
other states in Central America and the
Caribbean. The Initiative aims at combating
trafficking of drug and weapons,
transnational organized crime and
money laundering, as well as at strengthening
the Mexican police force and the
rule of law. The assistance includes training,
equipment and intelligence.
North America
United States of America
By Timothy Spence
Throwing a lifeline to dissident journalists
and bloggers, U.S. Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, in early 2010, defended unfettered
access to the Internet as a basic
right and condemned countries that restrict
the flow of information on the Web.
Clinton, speaking at the Newseum in
Washington on January 21, said the U.S.
was committed to protecting freedom of
expression in old and new formats.
“This freedom is no longer defined solely by
whether citizens can go into the town
square and criticize
their government
without fear of retribution,”
Clinton said.
“Blogs, e-mails, social
networks and text
messages have
opened up new forums
for exchanging
ideas, and created
new targets for censorship.
Both the American people and nations
that censor the Internet should understand
that our government is committed to
helping promote Internet freedom.”
But the tables appeared to turn quickly in a
year marked by successive disclosures
through the WikiLeaks Internet portal. The
site published classified videos, documents
and cables exposing apparent U.S. combat
misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, bungled
military operations, and potentially
damaging diplomatic dispatches about
friends and foes alike.
Within months of Clinton’s Newseum
speech, the Obama administration
branded the document releases “illegal,”
while U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder,
confirmed that an “active, ongoing criminal
investigation” was under way at the end of
the year. The Washington Post reported that
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, could
face charges under the Espionage Act, a law
dating to the First World War. There were
also news reports that U.S. agencies had ordered
their employees not to read the WikiLeaks
site on their workplace computers.
Criticism of WikiLeaks also came from
other quarters. Some members of the U.S.
Congress have sought to exclude bloggers
and groups like WikiLeaks from legislation
that would protect journalists from
being forced to reveal confidential sources
in court. Threatened with enquiries by
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut,
then-chairman of the Senate’s homeland
security panel, the Web-based retail giant
Amazon dropped
Prosecuting publishers of
classified information
threatens investigative journalism
that is necessary to
an informed public debate
about government conduct.
WikiLeaks from
one of its Internet
service sites. In
December, WikiLeaks
was forced
to shuffle servers
in the face of
withering hacker
attacks.
Hina Shamsi, who heads the American
Civil Liberties Union’s National Security
Project, warned that government threats
to prosecute WikiLeaks could undermine
the Constitution’s First Amendment-protection
of speech and a free press. “Prosecuting
publishers of classified information
threatens investigative journalism that is
necessary to an informed public debate
about government conduct, and that is an
unthinkable outcome,” she said in a statement
on December 1.
The harsh reactions to WikiLeaks followed
the publication of secret files, beginning in
April with the release of a 2007 video
filmed from an American Apache helicopter,
in which the crew gunned down 12
people in Baghdad, including two Reuters
journalists. Subsequent releases of thousands
of documents on the Afghan and
Iraq wars, in July and October respectively,
and on November 28, more than 250,000
U.S. diplomatic cables, also sparked threats
from government officials.
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