The amendment would make attacks against news organizations and journalists a federal crime, potentially taking these cases out of the hands of a local law enforcement that may be more subject to influence or intimidation. Her death prompted a national and international outcry, but no one has been arrested, nor is it likely that anyone will be brought to justice soon.Įarlier this year, the Mexican Parliament passed a first-of-its-kind constitutional amendment granting federal authorities the power to take on and prosecute crimes against freedom of expression and the press. In April, Regina Martinez, the national investigative reporter for Proceso and one of the most prominent journalists writing about the drug wars, was found murdered in her home.
This year alone, five journalists in Mexico have been brutally murdered.
#The year one challenge spiral free
These attacks mark yet another chapter in the war against a free press in Mexico, a war that includes brutal murders and the most terrible forms of harassment and intimidation. After the attack on its office, El Mañana announced in an editorial that it would no longer cover “violent disputes.” That newspaper and its journalists feared for their lives and would no longer cover the long-running and bloody battle for supremacy in the drug wars. These horrendous acts are having their intended effect. And in the third attack, two armed men entered another newspaper office, firing several indiscriminate shots before setting fire to the premises. In two of these attacks, gunmen entered newspaper offices armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers and opened fire. In recent weeks, there have been three attacks on newspaper offices in Mexico. Since 2000, there have been 82 homicides of journalists, 71 of which remain unsolved today.
The scale of the violence and the brutality of the cartels threaten Mexico’s civil society itself, in part by undermining and intimidating the media. Since 2006, the drug war has claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 people. The horrendous toll of the cartel-driven violence – against one another, against the police and military, and against innocent civilians – is difficult for most Americans to comprehend. The “war on drugs” is used figuratively in the United States, but in Mexico this war has become all too real. It is a choice no reporter would envy and none should be required to make. In Mexico, journalists increasingly have to decide between ignoring the violent drug cartels altogether, or putting their safety and that of their families at risk. Freedom of the press is one of the pillars of democracy, but an unrestricted media is no longer a reality south of our border.