Freedom of Expression
Press Release R271/20
Office of the
Special Rapporteur Expresses Extreme Concern about Violence against Journalists
in Mexico and Calls on the State to Strengthen Protection Mechanisms and
Measures to Combat Impunity
November 11, 2020
Washington D.C. - The Office of the Special
Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) condemns the recent murder of journalist Arturo Alba Medina in
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua State; Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas Montes in the city of
Cajeme, Sonora; and Israel Vázquez Rangel in the city of Salamanca, Guanajato. The
Rapporteurship urges the Mexican State and its Office of the Special Prosecutor
for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) to investigate fully,
effectively, and impartially to identify the perpetrators and masterminds of
these crimes and to determine any link that they may have with the victims’ journalistic
activity. It also calls on the State to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for
Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in line with the recommendations made in
the Special
Report on the Situation of Freedom of Expression in Mexico.
Arturo Alba Medina (49), host of the news program Telediario
on Channel 6 Multimedia in Ciudad Juárez, was killed after being shot at least
11 times on the night of October 29, minutes after concluding his news program.
On November 2, journalist Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas Montes (43) was murdered in
the city of Cajeme. He had worked with different media outlets and also had his
own digital news channel Zarathustra Prensa (El Shock de la Noticia). Also,
on November 9, journalist Israel Vázquez Rangel (31) was shot and killed while
covering a story for El Salmantino.
According to the information available, the three
journalists were working on issues of significant public interest such as
organized crime, citizen security, and corruption. As far as the Office of the
Special Rapporteur is aware, none of them had been included as beneficiaries of
the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.
In response to the events, the
Governing Board of the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists of the Ministry of the Interior
issued statements on October 31, November 5, and November 9, 2020, condemning
the murders of Mr. Alba Medina, Mr. Piñuelas Montes, and Mr. Vázquez Rangel,
respectively, and calling on the competent authorities to clarify the facts of
these cases as soon as possible, and to provide comprehensive services and
support to their families.
These murders took place in a particularly troubling
environment due to the recent elimination of 109 public trusts in Mexico, including
the Fund for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which
administered the resources for the implementation and operation of "preventive
measures, protection measures, and urgent protection measures." The Office of
the Special Rapporteur calls attention to this measure taken by the Mexican
Congress, which reduces the institutional capacity to protect journalists who
are under threat for doing their job. In its 2019 Annual
Report, the
Office of the Special Rapporteur observed that the government’s response to
make improvements and provide resources to the Protection Mechanism for Human
Rights Defenders and Journalists was insufficient given the extent of violence
against these groups. Therefore, we have recommended on several occasions that
the Mexican State continue to strengthen the Mechanism and ensure the effective
enforcement of its decisions and measures. The Office of the Special Rapporteur
has also recommended that more resources be made available to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for
Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) and that it vigorously exercise its power to
take over the investigation of serious crimes against the press.
According to the information documented by this
Office, at least seven cases have been reported so far in 2020 of journalists
murdered in Mexico for reasons that could be linked to their work as
journalists. In addition to these three most recent cases, we have received
reports of the murder of journalist Julio Valdivia Rodríguez, on September 9 in
the municipality of Tezonapa (state of Veracruz); Pablo Morrugares Parraguirre,
murdered on August 2 in Iguala (state of Guerrero), who was with his security
detail from the Guerrero State Public Security Secretariat, who also died;
María Elena Ferral Hernández, murdered on March 30 in Papantla (state of
Veracruz); and journalist Jorge Miguel Armenta Ávalos, murdered on May 16 in
Ciudad Obregón (state of Sonora). As reported to the Office of the Special
Rapporteur, both Pablo Morrugares Parraguirre and Jorge Miguel Armenta Avalos
had previously received threats and were under the protection of the Protection
Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. There have been additional
reports of journalists being killed, and the connection between these crimes
and the victims’ profession should not be ruled out a priori. In 2019, the
Office of the Special Rapporteur reported the murder of at least 11 journalists
in Mexico.
As noted by the IACHR and UN Rapporteurs for Freedom
of Expression in the Special
Report on the Situation of Freedom of Expression in Mexico, although the security crisis is
widespread in Mexico and seriously affects the human rights of the entire
population, acts of violence—including killings, disappearances, and torture—have
very often been directed against those who are most essential to bringing the
situation of conflict and insecurity, corruption, and criminality to light:
journalists. They added that the systematic and multifaceted nature of this
violence requires the implementation of an urgent, comprehensive, and coherent
set of strategies for prevention, protection, and accountability. This
structural violence, coupled with the lack of access to justice and proper
investigation, poses one of the most serious challenges to human rights in
Mexico today.
According to principle 9 of the IACHR Declaration of
Principles on Freedom of Expression, "The murder, kidnapping, intimidation of
and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of
communications media violate the fundamental rights of individuals and strongly
restrict freedom of expression. It is the duty of the state to prevent and
investigate such occurrences, to punish their perpetrators and to ensure that
victims receive due compensation."
The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that the
murder of journalists is the most extreme form of censorship, and calls on the
Mexican State to investigate these crimes fully, effectively, and impartially,
to establish the motives of the perpetrators, and to determine in court how
they might be linked to journalistic activity and the right to freedom of
expression. The Office also underscores that there is nothing more conducive to
the repetition of violence against the press than the absence of a strong
institutional response, and therefore the authorities at the highest levels of
government must continue to emphatically repudiate this escalation of violence;
impunity for crimes against journalists only encourages and reassures the
perpetrators of such violence.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
Expression was created by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
with the aim of encouraging the defense of the right to freedom of thought and
expression in the hemisphere, given its fundamental role in consolidating and
developing the democratic system.
R271/20