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H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
11850 Mexico, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729
Your Excellency:
The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) joins the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and other press freedom groups in praising your expression of support for 'the idea of federalizing crimes against freedom of expression,' as reported by the CPJ after your meeting with them in June. Taking action to embody that expression in your nation's laws, its law enforcement and administrative practices will go a long way toward encouraging the free expression so necessary for a democracy, toward building public support for the government as it confronts current economic challenges and the scourge of drug traffic, and toward rectifying Mexico's recent record as 'one of the world's most dangerous countries for the press,' according to an earlier CPJ analysis.
Similarly, we applaud your special prosecutor's office for taking on the case of two community radio workers murdered in Oaxaca, about which we complained to you in May. And we congratulate the state of Coahuila for its first-in-the-nation classification of killing of journalists because of their work as comparable to aggravated homicide. We hope it will set a model for other states and, along with your own commitment, make it clear that Mexico takes all such attacks and intimidation seriously.
But, sadly, we must tell you there is still a lot to be done. Within the government, we were disappointed to read that Juan de Dios Castro Lozano, deputy attorney general in charge of human rights and victim support, used the term 'enemy of the state' to describe Mexican journalist, Aleida Calleja, an international vice president of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasting (AMARC). And we join AMARC and the press freedom group, Article 19, in condemning the federal police closing in June of community radio station, Terra y Libertad, for operation without a license, since its application for such official authorization has been ignored for all seven years of its operation, bringing news of education, health, human rights and culture to a hard-pressed neighborhood of Monterrey.
We also deplore alleged discrimination by the Guanajuato state government last month against two newspapers for critical reporting, according to the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), and the earlier refusal of a Quintana Roo judge to order arrests of Puebla state employees for violating the rights of journalist, Lydia Cacho, a recipient of two international press freedom awards, and closing her case.
And we are truly alarmed by the escalating number of violent, sometimes fatal attacks on members of the news media, with little evidence of official follow-up. The full accounting would require a book, but the IFEX headlines alone are shocking:
In April, the printer of 'El Cinco' newspaper in Ciudad La Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas State, was abducted by armed men who invaded the premises, threatened other employees and prevented sale of papers to the public; also, a radio station director in Oaxaca wasthreatened and his house was hit by gunfire.
In May, Chiapas-based journalists were assaulted in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Tzimol and Huixtla; reporters were threatened and assaulted by federal police in Culican; a Mexico City Televisa crime reporter was apparently abducted.
In June, the previously threatened director of a Veracruz weekly survived a shooting attack; a human head was discovered in front of a Tabasco newspaper, and the editor was threatened; a female journalist in Tlaxcala was threatened after reporting on alleged state government misconduct; six journalists were assaulted by police and one was injured while covering a demonstration in Nuevo Leon; newspaper director, Luis Pablo Guardado Negrete, was brutally beaten and stabbed by two unidentified men in Navarit following an article on sexual assault; two journalists were assaulted by the military during operations in Oaxaca; and another journalist was gunned down in a Chihuahua state crime wave.
As we pointed out in May, Mexico's Constitution grants full freedom of expression and full press protection to journalists with the purpose of creating an informed public. Your government cannot be accountable for the acts of outlaws, but it does bear responsibility for maintaining civic order, which includes protection for journalists carrying out their obligation to keep the public informed. Members of the news media at all levels and in all localities will be assured and encouraged in their mission if your administration carries through on your expression of support for press freedom with effective laws and regulations, with swift justice and appropriate penalties for those who intimidate or attack them in the course of their critical responsibilities.
Respectfully yours,
David M. Alpern
Larry Martz
Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Hon. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Nos. 211-213
Mexico, DF, C.P. 06500
Mexico
Olga María del Carmen Sánchez
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152
Genaro David Góngora Pimentel
Ministro Presidente
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2, Colonia Centro México, DF
México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152
Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana
Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.A.
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Fax: (202) 728.1698
Ambassador Claude Heller
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 688.8862
Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX 78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 5080.2005
Lcda. Rosario Robles
Presidenta
Partido de la Revolución Democrática
Huatusco # 37, 5o. piso
Col. Roma Sur
México, D.F.
Fax: (011.52.55) 5207.1200
New York City Independent Media Center
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 311
New York, NY 10036
Patricia Mercado Sanchez
Editor
El Economista
Mexico DF
Mexico
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Leonardo Valero
Editor - International
La Reforma
Mexico, DF
Mexico
Leonardo.valero@reforma
Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz
El Universal of Mexico City
Bucareli N° 8, Col. Centro
Delegación Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06040
México
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El Maòana
Mexico
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Carmen Lira Saade
La Jornada
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México
Alberto Ibargüen
Miami Herald Publishing Company
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