1 July 2004
IFEX MEMBERS CONDEMN JOURNALIST'S MURDER
Seven IFEX members have expressed outrage at the murder of respected Mexican journalist Francisco J. Ortiz Franco, who was gunned down in broad daylight on 22 June 2004 in Tijuana, northern Mexico.
Ortiz Franco was driving home with his two children when gunmen approached his vehicle and shot him in the head and neck, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). He died instantly.
Ortiz Franco's murder has prompted condemnation from CPJ, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), PROBIDAD, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Freedom House and the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC).
Publisher, co-founder and editorialist of the weekly newspaper "Zeta," Ortiz Franco was often involved in investigations into corruption and drug trafficking in Tijuana. Over the years, staff at the newspaper have been targeted on numerous occasions, including "Zeta" co-founder Héctor Félix Miranda, who was murdered in April 1988, and editor Jesús Blancornelas, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in November 1997 and is under permanent armed guard.
Prior to his death, Ortiz Franco had been involved in a working group set up by the Mexican government and IAPA to investigate the murders of Félix Miranda and Víctor Manuel Oropeza, a columnist with the newspaper "Diario de Juárez" who was killed in 1991.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has ordered federal officials to collaborate with local authorities in investigating the case.
The U.S.-Mexico border is a dangerous place for journalists, who are targeted by drug traffickers and corrupt security personnel in the region. Ortiz Franco is the second journalist in the region to be killed this year, notes RSF.
On 19 March, Roberto Javier Mora García was murdered in the town of Nuevo Laredo. The editorial director of the newspaper El Mañana, he wrote several articles about the activities of the Gulf Cartel, a local drug-trafficking organisation (see:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9585).Visit these links:
- IAPA:
http://www.sipiapa.com- The Félix Miranda Case:
http://www.impunidad.com/cases/hector97E.htm- CPJ:
http://www.cpj.org/protests/04ltrs/Mexico23june04pl.html- PROBIDAD:
http://portal-pfc.org/index.php?seccion=perseguidos/2004/039.html- RSF:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10819- IFJ:
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=2563&Language=EN- WiPC:
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/- Freedom House:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/062904.htm- CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/06/24/mexico.editor.ap/