Freedom of Expression

Press Release R131/21

Office of the Special Rapporteur condemns the murder of journalist Benjamín Morales Hernández, and calls on the Mexican State to investigate the events fully and impartially and to strengthen measures to protect the press

 

May 20, 2021

 

Washington DC, - The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the murder of journalist Benjamín Morales Hernández in the state of Sonora, and urges authorities to investigate the facts fully, effectively, and impartiality and to strengthen measures to protect the press.

 

As this Office was informed, on May 3, Benjamín Morales Hernández, 50, founder and director of the Noticias Xonoidag portal in the municipality of Sonoyta, Sonora, was found lifeless by police agents on a highway between Caborca and Sonoyta, two municipalities of the state of Sonora. The forensic examinations revealed the impact of a firearm on the journalist's body, who had been abandoned along with a cardboard with a message, the content of which has not been disclosed, according to information provided by local media and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ).

 

As the Office of the Special Rapporteur learned, on the Noticias Xonoidag page the journalist published information and opinions on current affairs in the Sonoyta area. On May 1, the communicator reported on the federal, state, and municipal elections of June 6 through a live broadcast from his page, in which he also mentioned having received anonymous threats to his life. The journalist's brother, Natanael Morales, said he had lost contact with Benjamín Morales Hernández since the night of May 2, as reported by organizations linked to journalism in Sonora.

 

The murder of Benjamín Morales Hernández occurred on World Press Freedom Day and has been recorded by the Office of the Rapporteur as the first in 2021. At the end of 2020, the Committee to Protect Journalists pointed out that Mexico continues to be the most dangerous country from the Western Hemisphere for the press. In its 2020 annual report, this Office documented at least 8 murders of journalists in Mexico for exercising their work, in addition to other murders whose motive could be linked to information work. Some of these attacks took place in the state of Sonora, where the Office of the Special Rapporteur has observed with concern the escalation of violence: on May 16, 2020, journalist Jorge Miguel Armenta Ávalos was murdered in Ciudad Obregón and on November 2, 2020 reporter Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas Montes was murdered in the city of Cajeme. Likewise, in March 2021, the disappearance of journalist Jorge Molontzín, from the magazine Confidencial, in the municipality of Santa Ana, was reported to this Office.

 

Attacks and aggressions committed against journalists violate the right to freedom of expression, both individually and collectively, and cannot be tolerated in a democratic society. According to Principle 9 of the IACHR Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, "[t]he 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."

 

As indicated by the Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR and UN 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, the acts of violence have very often been directed against those who are most essential to publicize the situation of conflict and insecurity, corruption, and criminality: journalists.

 

The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that the murder of journalists constitutes the most extreme form of censorship, and calls on the Mexican State to redouble its efforts to combat violence against journalists and impunity, and to continue receiving accompaniment and technical support from the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. In this sense, it reiterates to the State the importance of combating violence against journalists through a comprehensive policy of prevention, protection, and prosecution. This last obligation includes the duty to investigate, prosecute, criminally punish those responsible for these crimes, and make comprehensive reparations to the victims. As has been pointed out on other occasions, the lack of sanctions for those who are materially and intellectually responsible for the murders, assaults, threats, and attacks related to the exercise of journalistic activity encourages the occurrence of new crimes and generates an effect of self-censorship.

 

The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression is an office created by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to encourage the hemispheric defense of the right to freedom of thought and expression, considering its fundamental role in the consolidation and development of the democratic system.

 

R131/21