Mexico Should Step Up Measures to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists ifex
go to original October 25, 2013

The climate of impunity which allows attacks on journalists in Mexico to remain unpunished is contributing to the on-going high level of risk to the security of writers in the country, PEN International said as it attended the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico's human rights record in Geneva.

The organization reiterated its call for increased and effective protection for journalists and writers by the federal government.

'Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a writer,' said Ann Harrison, Programme Director of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee.

'We have joined many other civil society organizations in pressing the Mexican government for several years to end impunity for killings of journalists and provide effective protection for those still working, but the measures put in place are largely ineffective.'

Since December 2006, at least 49 print journalists, writers and bloggers have been murdered and at least nine others have disappeared. Few of these attacks have been thoroughly investigated.

Impunity for crimes against journalists is estimated to stand at around 90 per cent and whilst some of the attacks are perpetrated by organized crime groups, many come from government agents at a state and local level.

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