Killing the Messenger and Discarding the Message: Mexican Press Under Fire Martin Moreno - SinEmbargo
go to original July 28, 2016

Journalist Pedro Tamayo was shot to death outside his home this month in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz (El Piñero de la Cuenca)

Nowadays in Mexico, if you want to be a critical journalist, to investigate, to report abuses of power and display corruption among the political class, you have three paths: the cemetery, censorship or being taken to court.

The execution of reporter Pedro Tamayo in Veracruz, where impunity reigns, is just one more account in the series of crimes against journalists, which has worsened since the previous administration when about 60 were killed. With the total of fatalities during Pena Nieto's term in office, the figure has already reached 120 Mexican journalists executed.

It is true that some colleagues have opted for dangerous liaisons and risked their lives knowing that the tainted, easy money paves the way to a violent end. We cannot close our eyes to this fact. However, not all journalists have gone down the wrong path. Not all.

The most damning and savage recourse, of course, is killing the messenger and discarding the message. Removing the pen or silencing the voice through violence, bullets, beatings and torture has worsened significantly during this administration. As the old saying goes: silver or lead. If you accept, you are allied. If you refuse, accept the consequences.

Another permanent and current path is censorship, the cornerstone of the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revoultion] system. Controlling the press. A handshake with the owner or director of the media organization to seal the misfortune of the critical journalist, who may then be restricted, moved or simply fired or eliminating their space from which the excesses of political power is questioned or denounced.

Each time a critical journalist is silenced - via violence or via censorship- at the same time a part of our freedom of expression and the right to know about what is happening in our country is also killed. Without a doubt we are experiencing a relapse in democracy.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexican Photojournalist’s Kin Still Seeking Truth a Year after Murders (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Related: Mexico Press Freedom: Inquisition Revived Against Carmen Aristegui (Mexico Voices)

Translated by Angela Quick

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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