Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2012
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Myles Estey

JOURNALISTS' KILLINGS SPREAD FEAR IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY-More than 100 journalists and supporters gathered Friday 
- - the day after three photographers were found murdered in the 
eastern port city of Veracruz - to call for more protections for 
journalists covering Mexico's complex and deadly drug war.

State officials confirmed Thursday that the bodies of photographers 
Guillermo Luna and Gabriel Huge, who worked for the Notiver local 
newspaper, were found dismembered, with evidence of torture.

Irasema Becerra, described as Luna's girlfriend, and Esteban 
Rodriguez, a former journalist working as a welder, were found 
alongside them, a later statement said.

Just five days earlier, Regina Martinez, a prominent writer who 
covered organized crime and politics for the respected news magazine 
Proceso, was discovered beaten and strangled in her bathroom, in the 
nearby town of Xalapa.

"It's a tremendous indignation . . . more than just sadness, it 
hurts," said Jenaro Villamil, a colleague of Martinez at Proceso and 
a specialist in Mexican media studies.

"Proceso had been able to save other journalists who had been 
threatened. This time, it was just so brutal, and so fast."

More than 50,000 people have been killed since 2006 in Mexico's drug 
war, which involves several major cartels, the armed forces and the 
police fighting each other in often unclear and shifting alliances.

Eighteen journalists have been killed in Mexico since January 2011, 
eight of them in the state of Veracruz. Mexico ranked as the 
deadliest country for journalists in 2011, according to the 
International Press Institute, with 10 reported killed last year.

Prosecutions in journalists' deaths remain rare: five cases of 
murdered media workers over the last 10 months remain unsolved in 
Veracruz alone.

Daniela Hernandez Nunez, investigative co-ordinator of Cencos, a 
group that promotes the safety of journalists and human rights 
defenders in the country, says these killings fuel a type of 
psychological warfare against journalists.

"They essentially say, 'Look, you can't go ahead and publish certain 
information, because if you do, this is going to happen to you,'" she said.

She adds that abductions, threats, forced detentions and attacks 
encourage paranoia and self-censorship - a common problem throughout Mexico.

Following Martinez's death, Mexico quickly passed a law mandating 
state protection for any journalists who receive threats for their 
work. It met with muted enthusiasm.

"It's great that there's a law, but it will not change what's in the 
background, which is the ongoing violence and corruption," Villamil 
said, adding that he doubted it could offer real protection.

"The problem is much deeper," said Hernandez. "It has to do with 
impunity, and the fact that the cases do not get investigated, and 
that the state sends the message that you can kill journalists and 
nothing will happen."

Few know this fear from this better than Luis Horacio Najera. After 
receiving numerous threats for critical pieces he wrote from Ciudad 
Juarez, Mexico's most violent city, he fled with to Vancouver in 
2008. Now exiled in Toronto, he questions how the state expects to 
protect journalists.

"A number of the threats to me came from investigations I did about 
human rights abuses from the military," he said. "So how is it that 
you can trust in the same people who are trying to kill you or attack you?"

He says the Mexican public needs to push its leaders to put real 
resources into protecting media workers.

John Ralston Saul, a Canadian writer and current president of 
advocacy group PEN International, says he now sees some genuine 
efforts to start enacting the necessary changes. But until 
investigations land prosecutions, the use of violence will continue, he warns.

"There has to be some sense the justice system works," Saul said.

He argues that Canada's strong regional, economic and cultural ties 
to Mexico mean that it should bear some responsibility. Canada should 
pressure Mexico for greater freedoms for writers at any meetings 
between the two nations, Saul said.

"This is far more important than any trade question, or work-related 
question, or diplomatic question. You cannot have a working 
relationship with a country which is engaged in the broad murder of 
writers for doing what writers in Canada or the United States would 
do in a normal day."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom