For Journalists, Mexico Is Where Freedom of the Press Is Being Killed Uta Thofern - Deutsche Welle
go to original August 7, 2015

Another murdered journalist. That's four this year and over 80 in the last decade. But it's not happening in a civil war or dictatorship; it's happening in Mexico. (Reuters/H. Romero)

Mexico is near the top of several different types of lists: The second largest country in Latin America is the world's 10th largest oil exporter, its 14th largest economy, and also its fourth largest automobile exporter. Mexico is a confident industrial nation, a free-trade pioneer, and not least, it is the largest democracy in the region.

However, on the Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index, Mexico ranks 148 of 180, with Cuba being the only other Latin American country ranked lower. But Mexico is deadlier. Here, journalists are not simply "hindered" in their work, nor are they censored or jailed for unfavorable reporting, in Mexico they are tortured and killed.

For journalists, Mexico is one of the deadliest countries on the planet. It is a nation where most crimes are never solved, never atoned for. That impunity is evidence that the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press in Mexico is not worth the paper it is written on.

And that, despite the fact that three years ago the Mexican government passed a law specifically designed to protect human rights activists and journalists, along with creating a prosecuting authority to investigate crimes against freedom of speech. The result: a bureaucratic monstrosity that has done absolutely nothing to change the situation. Whoever has the temerity to report critically on organized crime, to name names, or to bring criminal offenses to light, can count on dying a violent death in Mexico.

Read the rest at Deutsche Welle

Related: Why Isn’t Mexico Protecting its Journalists? (Care2)

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