Oaxaca: new journalist’s murder

On August 11, the director of Social Communication of the municipality of San José Cosolapa, Oaxaca and collaborator of the newspaper “El Buen Tono” in Veracruz, Octavio Rojas Hernández was shot dead. His recent articles were about “Chupaductos” referring to a band that was “milking” Pemex pipelines. His research pointed that among those responsible were policemen from the municipality. The chief information officer of El Buen Tono said that this murder has to do directly with these notes. He thus demanded that the police investigation considers this line of research: “For us, the family and even sources within the city council, we all believe it is because of his articles. The Attorney should deepen that line of investigation, investigate well and deal with the consequences. “

Darío Ramírez, Director for Mexico and Central America of ARTICLE 19, an organization that protects the rights of journalists, “the murder of Octavio Rojas is a sad reminder of the latent danger to those who do journalism in Mexico. The murder must not go unpunished, even though all indications are that it will, according to previous cases. If we want a secure and free press, the first thing we need to do is to fight the most poignant sign of encouragement for future aggressions: impunity. “

In an alert related to the case, ARTICLE 19 said they it has documented “from January 1, 2007 to the first semester of 2014, at least 139 attacks on the press in Oaxaca, which stand out as one of the three Mexican states with more aggression against reporters in seven years (the first place is the Federal District and the second, Veracruz). Of the total of agressions, four have been murders, 75 physical attacks, 27 threats, 13 acts of intimidation and six arbitrary arrests, to name a few of them. In 58 percent of cases, the alleged perpetrators of the attacks are public officials. “