In Mexico, the law in fear-free not the authorities, but the journalists. Therefore, which are the target of attacks, in this year, eight fatalities.
The funeral of the journalist Santiago Barroso
On Tuesday, July 30, was Rogelio Barragan in the trunk of his car in the state of Morelos, near Mexico city found. The lifeless body of the journalist was wrapped in a blanket. His family had been searching for since the previous day, desperate for him. The 49-year-old Journalist launched a news portal called “Guerrero al Instante”. According to the newspaper, the Journalist was threatened with reports because of his work. As he wanted to bring in safety, he was murdered.
Barragán is the eighth Journalist killed this year in Mexico. According to UNESCO, Mexico is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. This year alone, journalists Norma Sarabia, Francisco Romero, Telésforo Santiago, Mr Jesús Eugenio Ramos, Rafael Murúa, Omar Iván Camacho and Santiago were murdered Barroso in cold blood.
In the last 18 years in Mexico, more than 158 journalists were executed. Your killer running around in 99 percent of cases, continue to be free. And it’s not just the murders – the vast majority of the victims previously tortured, but also the public humiliation of those who dare to uphold the legal right of society to Information. For each in Mexico, journalists killed, dozens are brought indirectly to the Silence.
Screenshot with the image of the killed journalists Rogelio Barragan
The journalists ‘ killings are not only a disgrace for my country, but also for the international community, was shocked and moved, but no way can or want to prevent these crimes in a country that is formally a democracy, not a dictatorship or a failed state. Mexico is the leading economic power of Latin America and one of the 15 largest economies in the world.
While the government have been murdered in the time of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) in Mexico, 36 journalists. During the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) 47. Under Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) there were 66 and in the first nine months of the left-wing President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador were already done nine hung, so one per month. Should the Trend continue, this would be the year with the most journalist murders in the last few decades.
The government is silent
Nevertheless, the government of López Obrador does nothing to the crimes against journalists to educate. Do not take a public position on this. 18. June was organised by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom summit in Mexico. The planned event was postponed for five months, waiting for information of the President, whether he wanted to participate in the event. From the office of the President, no answer came.
Last March, the Secretary-General of reporters without borders, Christophe Deloire asked to illustrate a direct Meeting with the Mexican President, to give him the alarming situation of journalists in his country. As the Meeting was confirmed, traveled Deloire from Europe. The President received him.
DW-columnist Anabel Hernández
The history of violence against journalists in Mexico is also my own story and the story of hundreds like me in my country. I didn’t survive to tell about it; many other friends and colleagues, however.
It was in the year 2008, as the number of people in Mexico murdered journalist began to alarm the international community. Unfortunately, the war between the drug cartels has drawn in the last 18 years, the attention from the actual reason for this is that journalists executed in the whole country, threatened, censored and harassed. The Mexican government has used the violence of the drug cartels consistently as a distraction and explanation for the violence against journalists. But there is no evidence that the would have to do a thing with the other.
Instead, it is the widespread corruption, which explains the violence against journalists.
Mexico is considered to be one of the most corrupt Nations in the world. In 2018, the country ended up in the Transparency International Index ranked 138 out of a total of 180 countries. Add to this that, on average, 96 percent of crimes go unpunished. This can be used for pick-pocketing on the street, rape, kidnapping, extortion, murder, embezzlement of public funds, money laundering to drug trafficking.
The victims silence
According to official statistics were launched in the period from 2010 to 2016, and 11.5 million crimes in Mexico to the display. In reality, however, 200 million crimes were not committed with 151 million Victims, in which the amount refunded is usually no display, because they trust the judiciary. In the case of kidnappings, the discrepancy is particularly striking. From 2010 to 2016 in Mexico 1131 kidnappings were reported. According to the official government statistics, there were but 66.842 cases. This means that 98 percent of all the kidnappings were not displayed.
The renowned Universidad de las Américas in Mexico city published 2017, a study came to the conclusion that in 26 of the 32 Mexican States, the justice system is collapsing. The former head of the University and the Client of the study, Alejandro Gertz Manero, the current attorney General in Mexico.
This means that those who are celebrating today in Mexico of a crime, know that impunity is almost guaranteed. Politicians and officials have no fear that they might be drawn for their collusion with the drug mafia, or for the embezzlement of public funds accountable, as those who kidnap people, blackmail, or sell drugs.
But despite all this, there is a social force that’s going on with a superhuman effort against these excesses: the independent journalism. It is thanks to the Mexican journalists, not the government or judicial authorities, that in the last 18 years, the worst cases of human rights violations, perpetrated massacres, the police forces and army members, of Embezzlement, abuse cases in the Church and corruption revealed at all levels of Government.
I could have given dozens of columns to write about cases in which journalistic research of the Mexican society of justice and access to the truth.
The law the journalists ‘ fear-free
The Law is not afraid of the authorities, have given. They are afraid of the journalists. As the human rights organization “Article 19” documented for years, are not primarily drug dealers killing journalists, or threaten, but government representatives or politicians.
Violence against independent journalists is increasing, not only in Mexico but throughout the world. According to a UNESCO report from the year 2018, have been murdered in the last 10 years worldwide, 1,000 journalists, where Mexico is the country with the most murders. Worldwide 89 percent of the cases go unpunished.
55 percent of murders occurred in countries that were not in the war, and where the victim in corruption cases, researched. I think that her death is part of a phenomenon that is similar to the Situation in Mexico. Therefore, the protection for a free, rigorous and independent journalism is an international obligation, which is just as valuable as the protection of the democracy of a country or the life of its citizens. Because in countries like Mexico, journalism is the only source of truth. And it is only through the truth can there be accountability.
The journalist and author Anabel Hernández reports for many years about drugs cartels and corruption in Mexico. After massive threats of murder, they had to leave Mexico and has since lived in Europe. For your use, you received at the Global Media Forum of Deutsche Welle in Bonn and the DW Freedom of Speech Award in 2019.