Freedom of Expression
Press Release R173/18
Office of the Special Rapporteur Condemns two new murders of journalists
in Mexico and urges the State to implement recommendations on protection and
law enforcement
August 7, 2018
Washington D.C.
- The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the murders of
Mexican journalists Rubén Pat and Luis Pérez García, and urges the authorities
to investigate the possible connections of the crimes to the journalistic work
of the victims.
Rubén Pat was
the director of the weekly newspaper "Playa News" and,
according to media reports, he was killed with a firearm in a bar in Playa del
Carmen, in the municipality of Solidaridad, in Quintana Roo, on the morning of
July 24.
According to
the information available, Pat had received threats and, therefore, he had
requested protection from the authorities. The State reported that he entered
as a beneficiary of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders and Journalists in April 2018 and his situation was followed-up. One month before the attack, Pat
contacted the Mechanism to denounce that an unknown van was parked in front of
his house. After this incident, the Mechanism had ordered permanent
surveillance to his home.
In addition,
after the assassination on June 29th of José Guadalupe Chan Dzib, a journalist who also
worked in the same media outlet, the Mechanism ordered that the protection be
provided by a permanent municipal police escort, but it is not clear if this
protection scheme was present when the crime occurred. The Federal Mechanism
reported that Pat had expressed that he trusted the Municipal Police, however,
at this moment the Mechanism assures that it investigates if the police escort
accompanied him when the events occurred.
According to
civil society organizations, the murdered journalist reported that these
measures were not enough given that the threats against him persisted, and that
so he was working under fear. In 2017, the journalist was arrested and
assaulted by the local police of Solidaridad, after the publication of an
article about the links between the police and a local drug cartel.
Luis Pérez
García was the director of the magazine "Encuesta de Hoy" and
member of the National Association of Broadcasters of Mexico [Asociación
Nacional de Locutores de México] (ANLM). According to available
information, the journalist was also a social activist, focusing on political
and community issues. García was murdered in his home, located in the
Iztapalapa delegation, Mexico City, on July 10. According to media reports, the
autopsy revealed that the death was caused by a sharp or pointed object, and
not asphyxia, as was initially thought. According to available information, the
perpetrators of the crime had set fire to the house in order to cover the
crime.
The State has
informed that the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Committed against
Freedom of Expression [Fiscalía Especial para la Atención de Delitos
cometidos contra la Libertad de Expresión] (FEADLE), of the Office of the
Attorney General of the Republic [Procuraduría General de la República]
(PGR) initiated the investigations of the murder of Pat and Pérez García and
that they remain open to determine if the homicides were related to the
journalistic work of the victims. The State also added that, currently, the
FEADLE sent work teams to the States involved to collaborate in the field with
local prosecutors.
After these two
cases, the number of journalists murdered this year in Mexico reaches eight.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur urges the newly elected government to
redouble its efforts to ensure the protection of journalists and to fight
against impunity, since the murders of journalists are a serious attack on
freedom of expression and constitute a form of extreme censorship. The
Protection Mechanism and the FEADLE should implement the recommendations contained
in the Special Report on the Situation of Freedom of Expression in Mexico that
account for the unsatisfactory coordination between the Federal and State
levels, both to implement the protection measures, and to clarify the facts in
full and sanction the material and intellectual responsibles. These recent
cases are tragic examples of these problems.
As indicated in
previous statements, the Office of the Special Rapporteur notes that this
country faces a profound security crisis that seriously affects human rights
and, particularly, the safety of journalists. In the Special Report on the
country, this Office, together with the UN Special Rapporteur, affirmed that
endemic attacks against journalists, as well as human rights defenders,
undoubtedly represent the most immediate and challenging threat to freedom of
expression in Mexico.
Principle 9 of
the Declaration of
Principles on Freedom of Expressionof the IACHR states that "[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."
The Office of
the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression is an office created by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in order to stimulate 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.
R173/18