MEXICO .- The alert is on the table: every two days they threaten to kill or attack two journalists in Mexico . And the concern of the organization Article 19 , specialized in defending the right to freedom of expression, is to be killed. Because each of the communicators murdered in recent times, they put an ultimatum.
Then the bullet. Torture, disappearance.
The most recent case occurred against Jacinto Romero Flores, Ori Stereo announcer who was shot to death in the past 19 August 2021 , in Ixtaczoquitlán, Veracruz. He was the sixth victim of the year, in a possible connection with his work.
Five months earlier, in March, Romero Flores reported threats via WhatsApp, as a result of his publications about abuse of authority by elements of the Texhuacan municipal police. Romero Flores requested support from the State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists to apply the necessary protection mechanisms to safeguard their safety, but to date it is unknown if he was granted protection.
During the first semester of 2021, 362 attacks against people in the Mexican press, which is equivalent to one each 12 hours, according to the report of the first semester of 2021 by ARTICLE 19 on freedom of expression in the country.
The international organization that is characterized by its sharpness in documentation with each of the cases since Decades ago, it has also been the target of disqualifications by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who accuses it of being financed by the North American “State Department”, despite the fact that in itself Previous exenios used their data to criticize their predecessors.
The violence that documents Article 19 does not specifically report the federal government. In fact, it details that the Aggressions against the press are “generalized in the country”, and in practically all the states attacks against journalists and the media were documented.
Despite the fact that violence related to organized crime is far from centralization, the organization details that the main targets of intimidation, harassment, death threats, physical attacks and displacement are in Mexico City with 64 aggressions.
Followed by Tamaulipas and Quintana Roo, with 23 each; Puebla, with 22; Warrior, with 22 and Baja California, with 21.
In the first half of the year, three journalists were assassinated in possible connection with their work. Benjamín Morales Hernández, assassinated on May 3 (World Press Freedom Day) in Sonora; Gustavo Sánchez Cabrera, whose life was taken from him on 17 of June in Oaxaca and the communicator Saúl Tijerina Renteria assassinated on 22 June in Coahuila.
To date there are also the murders of Ricardo López Dominguez, occurred on 22 July, in Guaymas Sonora and that of Jacinto Romero Flores, perpetrated on 19 of August in Ixtaczoquitlán, Veracruz. With this, they are 23 journalists are the who have been assassinated during the term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
State agents are the ones who most attack the press, according to the report. In this period, 134 assaults were committed, this is the 37. 33% of the total.
In particular, civil servants were identified as perpetrators of 83, followed by elements of the civilian security forces with 46 , and elements of the armed forces (such as the Army, the Navy and the National Guard) with 5.
The electoral situation stands out in the first semester as the main risk coverage , as members of political parties attacked the press on 56 occasions.
“Because of its work, for the aggressors the press becomes an objective to silence and censor in elections, due to the political cost that it could imply for those who compete for public office,” he warned .
In the profile of threats, the sustained growth of Internet attacks stands out, since one in three occurs in this space . From smear campaigns and intimidating communications, to cyber attacks and attempts to access their accounts.
“ Journalists and the media live a constant onslaught of intimidation before which the authorities continue to have no preparation or response, “he warned.
” We find ourselves with an absent State that does not provide the necessary guarantees or for nor for the protection of the journalistic union. ”
In 2020, the impunity rate for crimes against free expression was 98%.
On the other hand, attacks against women journalists continue to increase. Article 19 documented 120 in the first semester. Of these, at least 35 had a gender component or connotation sexual (28. 6%).
Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director of the group, highlights that another form of aggression against the press is distortion and this occurs, largely at the federal level. “Official actions show dangerous tendencies to old practices with the new federal administration,” he warns.
Among these, the centralization of the president’s information in his figure at pontificate, judge, moralize, stigmatize, inform and misinform in the morning press conference.
It is observed, for example, that he does not face his errors and cites “other data ”That seem not to exist in the documented collections of their dependencies. The president minimizes and stigmatizes or criminalizes violence and when requesting information that supports data, these do not exist or are denied.
Economic control is also found in the absence of clear criteria for assigning official information as “a clear mechanism of indirect censorship and concentration of advertising in the same media,” said Maldonado with emphasis on one piece of information: the 54% of the budget was exercised between 10 media and the rest between 387.
In states and municipalities
Contrary to the general belief that the attacks against journalists come from organized crime, the article count 19 details that those who perpetrate it are mainly public officials: around one in four. Of these, the majority are municipal, followed by state and to a lesser extent federal.
In Sinaloa, the Association of Journalists and Communicators June 7 condemned the attacks on press freedom that have been registered by the mayors of Culiacán, Mazatlán and Ahome, for example. “They are harassing us, intimidating and even threatening reporters who only fulfill their responsible function of bringing timely information to society.”
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