@Article 19
On September 14th, the organization Article 19, which has been working for freedom of expression and the right to access to information for more than 30 years, reported that during the first half of 2020 the attacks against the press in Mexico increased by 45 % compared to last year.
It detailed that, from January to June of the current year, 406 attacks against journalists and/or the press were registered, compared to the 280 attacks documented during the same period in 2019.
“With 609 attacks, 2019 – the first year of the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador administration – was the most violent year against the press in the last decade. However, in the first six months of this year, 66% of this infamous record was already reached. As a comparison, this first semester of 2020 has already exceeded the total of documented attacks in all of 2015. If this trend continues, 2020 would be the most violent year for the press since Article 19 has been registered”, the organization said.
It specified that the states with the most attacks were Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Quintana Roo, and that the main attacks were threats, intimidation and harassment. It also documented four murders of journalists during 2020, the last victim, Julio Valdivia from Veracruz, was killed just days before this statement.
Article 19 further explained that “some factors that propagate the growth of aggressions are the intolerance of public officials to public scrutiny, particularly linked to the pandemic, the repression of protests, as well as the capture of public power by organized crime.”
Finally, Article 19 asked the federal, state and municipal governments to reverse this trend.
It is worth mentioning that, this same day, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, from Geneva, condemned the murders of four journalists and seven human rights defenders in Mexico since the beginning of 2020. She urged the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to “improve the effectiveness of the National Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.”
More information in Spanish:
Primer semestre de 2020: crecen exponencialmente las agresiones contra la prensa y continúan los asesinatos (Boletín Articulo 19, 14 de septiembre)
Aumenta 45% las agresiones a periodistas en primer semestre de 2020 (Animal Político, 14 de septiembre)
Bachelet condena asesinato de periodistas, activistas y militarización en México(El proceso, 14 de septiembre)
Asesinan a reportero, Julio Valdivia, en Veracruz (La Jornada, 10 de septiembre)
More information from SIPAZ:
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