Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists are calling out Mexico’s government over the ongoing violence against journalists and the lack of protection given to them — even those who have been placed under a police program for targeted journalists.
This week, the two international organizations published a joint report No One Guarantees My Safety: The urgent need for strengthening the federal policies in Mexico to protect journalists. The report is highly critical of how Mexico has failed to protect journalists. It highlights that in the last seven years, there have been eight journalists killed who were in a special program for targeted news workers where the federal government claimed to be protecting them. Currently, Mexico has 651 journalists who have been targeted, threatened, or attacked and are under the “protection” of the program.
The report listed that even while being under the protection of the program, the various journalists interviewed by Amnesty International and the CPJ, all claimed that they had continued to receive threats and harassment and that the protection program was “slow, bureaucratic and lacking empathy.”
“It is time for the Mexican State to act and demonstrate that they are finally willing to take their obligations seriously regarding freedom of the press,” said CPJ representative Jan-Albert Hootsen.
The report calls for Mexico’s government to not only improve the program but also to end the impunity in crimes against journalists.
The report comes as various press freedom groups label Mexico as one of the deadliest countries in the world for news workers. The topic of violence against journalists has been one of the more controversial topics during the administration of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Mexican president has been publicly accused of verbally attacking and targeting journalists who write or report critical articles. Most recently, as Breitbart Texas reported, Lopez Obrador drew international criticism for doxing a U.S. journalist who had written to his press office asking about cartel bosses having funded his campaign and his son’s alleged ties to criminals.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.