On World Press Freedom Day, Mexico Is Still Failing Its Journalists in Face of Deadly Violence Pete Madden - Reuters
go to original May 3, 2017

Mexico Journalist Security: CPJ Urges Govt to Fight Violence Against Press (TRT World)

Three successive Mexican presidents have failed to halt a cycle of violence against journalists and impunity for their killers that is stifling freedom of expression, a watchdog group said on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged President Enrique Pena Nieto to prioritise protection for the media in the last year of his government after at least 21 journalists were slain in the past decade with “complete impunity.”

“The pursuit of justice has failed categorically,” CPJ said in a report on Mexico. “The system seems to be corrupt down to its very foundation; either that or it’s simply incapable of achieving justice.”

Mexico, where battles among rival drug cartels have left tens of thousands dead in recent years, has the sixth worst record in the world for resolving the murders of journalists, according to the CPJ.

Despite promises of action by Pena Nieto and his predecessors Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox, Mexico‘s impunity rating has more than doubled since 2008, it added.

The CPJ’s impunity index is based on unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country’s population.

The drug-ravaged state of Veracruz is now the deadliest region for the media in the Western hemisphere, the CPJ said.

Read the rest at The Wire

Related: The Most Common Punishment for Killing a Journalist in Mexico: Nothing. (The Washington Post)

Related: Political Culture in Mexico Delays Justice for Murdered Journalists (Insight Crime)

Related: Watchdog: Mexico One of most Dangerous Countries for Journalists (Asharq Al Awsat)

Related: Another Mexico Journalist Killed Ahead of Press Freedom Day (teleSUR)

Related: What It's Like to Report in One of the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists (The Los Angeles Times)

Related: Censorship Increases in the Americas While 33 Journalists and Communicators Lost Their Lives in 2016, According to IACHR Report (Journalism in the Americas)

Related: Is This the Most Dangerous Place to Be a Female Journalist Right Now? (Broadly.VICE)

Related: Protection of Journalists Fails in Latin America (Inter Press Service)

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