Reporters See Ironic Casualty of Mexican Judicial Reform: Transparency Kendal Blust - Nogales International
go to original July 8, 2016

Radio XENY reporter Cesar Barron makes a call to the station on his way to a crime scene in Nogales, Sonora. (Kendal Blust)

Daily police bulletins with basic data about robberies, assaults, domestic disputes and other local wrongdoings had long been the springboard for crime reporting in Nogales, Sonora – until they suddenly halted at the beginning of June.

“We used to get reports every day with all the facts – the day, the time, the situation, what happened,” said Ruben Ruiz, crime reporter for El Imparcial. “Since they stopped, reporting crimes has been a lot more complicated.”

This reversal of transparency ironically appears to stem from recent justice system reforms implemented across Mexico that became effective in Sonora on May 30. Despite aiming to increase the accountability and fairness of the court system, the changes have left Nogales, Sonora reporters in the dark, they say.

The Mexican Congress amended the constitution with criminal justice reforms in June 2008, requiring the entire country to comply with new standards by June 18, 2016. While public hearings for trials are among the most radical of the changes, other reforms include expanded investigative responsibilities for police forces; greater discretion for prosecutors, including the ability to plea bargain; limitations on the practice of holding defendants in prison while their cases slowly advance; and the use of different judges at different phases of criminal proceedings.

All of this is designed to address high rates of impunity and lack of due process, and strengthen the rights of both victims and the accused, according to Matthew Ingram, a legal scholar and assistant political science professor at the University of Albany SUNY. The new system is based on the presumption of innocence, he said.

However, in Nogales, Sonora, an apparently unintended consequence is that journalists feel shut out of the process. Not only have the police stopped sending regular reports, but journalists say they have also been excluded from the supposedly public trials because of space limitations.

“There have been three audiences for oral hearings. To date, not a single reporter has been admitted,” said Cesar Barron, crime reporter for Radio XENY in Nogales, Sonora. “Even if there is a lack of space, this doesn’t achieve the transparency indicated in the new code.”

Read the rest at Nogales International

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