Journalists in Mexico Are Being Threatened, Blackmailed and Murdered Oscar Lopez - Newsweek
go to original December 22, 2015

In Mexico, Journalism Can be a Very Dangerous Career Choice (teleSUR English)

Journalists have long faced violence and intimidation in Mexico from cartels on one side and corrupt authorities on the other. But according to Article 19, an international human rights group defending freedom of expression, there has been a sharp rise in attacks in recent years.

During the presidency of Felipe Calderón, from 2006 to 2012, there was an average of one incident against journalists every two days. Under current President Enrique Peña Nieto, that’s gone up to one every 22 hours. Since 2000, 16 journalists in the country have been reported missing and 88 have been killed—seven have been murdered in 2015 alone. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Mexico is the most dangerous place to be a journalist in the Americas, with about a third of the documented murders of journalists since 2010 having occurred in the country.

“It’s a national emergency,” says Darío Ramírez, from Article 19 in Mexico. “There are black holes of information across the country where no one knows what’s going on."

For many, what angers them most is the impunity. Despite the dozens of murders and attacks on journalists, there have been few arrests and fewer convictions: “The penal system is abysmal,” says Carlos Lauría from the Committee to Protect Journalists. “There's no sense of punishment.”

There have been token measures taken. In 2012, Peña Nieto’s administration created the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which last year determined that Hernández’s situation was of “extraordinary risk.” But without a commitment to investigate and prosecute offenders, Hernández says such authorities are completely ineffective. “There’s been no investigation of the assault on my home,” she says. “This kind of impunity demonstrates that these institutions just aren’t working.”

Read the whole story at Newsweek

Related: Mexico Ranked as One of the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists (teleSUR)

Related: Journalism, Tamaulipas-Style: Learning to Keep Quiet (El Daily Post)

Related: Endangered Mexican Journalists Seek Asylum in U.S. (CNN)

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