World Association of News Publishers


WAN-IFRA and IPI hail passage of Mexican legislation to combat impunity and call for its immediate application

Language switcher

Available in:

WAN-IFRA and IPI hail passage of Mexican legislation to combat impunity and call for its immediate application

Article ID:

16508

Enactment follows IPI and WAN-IFRA mission to Mexico

Paris, France, Darmstadt, Germany and Vienna, Austria, May 7, 2013 – The International Press Institute and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) today welcomed the passage of seminal legislation in Mexico designed to combat the almost complete impunity in cases of crimes committed against the country’s journalists.

Journalists protest in Xalapa, Veracruz, after the death of their colleague Regina Martínez on 28 April 2012. Credit: Miguel Ángel Carmona.

 

The changes to the Federal Code on Penal Procedure, among other statutes – all of which entered into force last Thursday, World Press Freedom Day – put into practice a constitutional reform from last summer granting the federal government the power to prosecute crimes against freedom of expression. Previously, under Mexico’s federal structure, this responsibility lay primarily with state and local authorities, who have dramatically failed to protect the Mexican press from violent attacks.

 

IPI and WAN-IFRA, travelled to Mexico this February to urge legislators to approve this so-called “secondary legislation” (i.e. complementary to the constitutional reform), as part of both organisations’ focus on improving journalist safety in Mexico. Ultimately, both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies passed the measure by unanimous vote.

 

“The passage of this legislation marks a milestone in the collaborative effort to protect and promote press freedom and journalist safety in Mexico,” IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said. “Mexico’s Congress has sent a strong signal that those who seek to harm journalists and thereby silence an entire nation will be met with the full force of the law.”

 

“Mexico’s legislators have now done their job, but the real work has only just begun: The federal government and the Office of the General Prosecutor must now ensure that the Federal Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression has the resources and funds to do her job. IPI will be carefully monitoring the prosecutor’s work and we will not be satisfied until the killers of journalists are behind bars.”

 

Prior to these changes to federal law, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was caught in an absurd situation in that it essentially lacked the legal standing to do the job it was created to do. The current prosecutor, Laura Borbolla, told IPI and WAN-IFRA in Mexico City in February that in at least 40 cases her office had collected enough information to justify the arrest of a suspect, but that each time the evidence had been brought to a federal judge, the case was declined due to a lack of jurisdiction. Since its creation in 2006, the Office has achieved just one conviction.

 

“Now that the Special Prosecutor has been given the legal tools to act, we expect nothing less than immediate and thorough investigations on the killings of journalists”, said Larry Kilman, WAN-IFRA’s deputy CEO. “We must not forget that, since the creation of the first Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists by the federal government in 2006, more than 50 media professionals have been murdered. Convictions for the killers of journalists are long overdue from this Office. It’s time to put an end to such impunity.”

 

The reform to Article 73 of the Mexican Constitution does not make crimes against the media a federal offence per se, but rather empowers the federal government to prosecute such crimes under conditions now established by the secondary legislation. Exact details on the legal changes under the secondary legislation can be found in IPI and WAN-IFRA’s recent mission report.

Author

Rodrigo Bonilla's picture

Rodrigo Bonilla

Date

2013-05-07 14:04

Author information

Related nodes

A report released in April 2013 by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Institute (IPI) following their February joint press-freedom mission to Mexico states that the new Mexican federal government must work to fully implement recent institutional measures designed to improve journalist safety.

Author

Rodrigo Bonilla's picture

Rodrigo Bonilla

Date

2013-04-15 13:53

Mexican government measures to ensure greater safety of journalists, along with strategies adopted by media and journalists to continue reporting from highly dangerous parts of the country, were examined this week by a delegation from the International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Author

Andrew Heslop's picture

Andrew Heslop

Date

2013-02-15 14:41

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Insitute (IPI) addressed a letter on 22 April 2013, to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, expressing their concern for alleged threats against a reporter of weekly magazine 'Proceso'.

Author

Rodrigo Bonilla's picture

Rodrigo Bonilla

Date

2013-04-22 15:58

Media employees worldwide face physical violence and persecution of all kinds, whether from public officials, criminals or terrorists. Assaults are daily - and often deadly - for those who challenge governments, report on conflicts or investigate corruption and crime. Read more ...

In countless countries, journalists, editors and publishers are physically attacked, imprisoned, censored, suspended or harassed for their work. WAN-IFRA is committed to defending freedom of expression by promoting a free and independent press around the world. Read more ...