1 February 2006
JOURNALISTS TO PROBE COLLEAGUES' MURDERS
Journalists from Mexico have announced plans to conduct joint investigations into the unsolved murders of colleagues, following a meeting in Nuevo Laredo organised last week by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
At a seminar on drug trafficking and news coverage attended by more than 120 journalists, IAPA formally launched the Fénix Project with the aim of pressuring Mexican authorities to find and prosecute those responsible for murdering journalists. Journalists from various newspapers will pool their resources and contacts to investigate cases that have been left unsolved by authorities.
Since March 2004, eight journalists have been killed in Mexico, according to IAPA. Five of these cases are linked to organised crime, including drug trafficking.
This has led to a climate of fear among the Mexican press, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border where more than 1,000 drug-related killings were recorded by the newspaper "El Universal" in a nine-month period in 2005, says IAPA.
As a result, journalists have avoided covering drug trafficking or fled to other parts of the country out of fear for their safety.
Participants at the Nuevo Laredo seminar called on Mexican authorities to aggressively prosecute crimes against journalists and to make such crimes a federal offence. They also called on media organisations to provide greater protection to their staff and to improve communication channels with authorities on journalists' safety.
In September 2005, Mexican President Vicente Fox told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he supported the creation of a special prosecutor to evaluate crimes against free expression and monitor prosecutions. To date, no one has been appointed. CPJ research indicates that state-level investigations of journalist murders either stall or move forward sluggishly due to corruption and a lack of adequate resources.
Visit these links:
- IAPA: http://tinyurl.com/8f8df
- IAPA Report on Mexico: http://www.sipiapa.org/pulications/informe_mexico2005o.cfm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/protests/06ltrs/americas/mexico12jan06pl.html
- Free Fire Zone: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2004/tijuana/tijuana.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14153
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