Pubdate: Mon, 30 Apr 2007
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Oscar Avila, Tribune foreign correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

MEXICAN JOURNALISTS DECRY WEAK EFFORTS AGAINST VIOLENCE ON PEERS

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Mexican journalists have grown impatient as 
more of their colleagues are murdered, kidnapped or threatened 
because of their work. Increasingly, the media have directed their 
frustration toward the office designed to provide them justice: the 
Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists.

Created amid fanfare in 2006 by then-President Vicente Fox, the 
office is now seen by many media organizations as a toothless entity 
without the resources or political will to successfully prosecute 
crimes committed against journalists.

The sense of urgency increased this month after the fatal shooting in 
Acapulco of Amado Ramirez, a reporter for Televisa, Mexico's largest 
television network. Ramirez was shot weeks after airing an 
investigation on drug traffickers, and his slaying prompted hundreds 
of journalists to rally for greater protections.

On Wednesday, the Vienna-based International Press Institute reported 
that Mexico's seven murders in 2006 made it the second-deadliest 
nation for journalists, behind Iraq. Media watchdogs said the 
violence is tied to warring drug cartels, often in league with 
corrupt police, who hope to intimidate journalists from reporting 
their activities.

In his first interview with the foreign press, Special Prosecutor 
Octavio Orellana defended his office's accomplishments but 
acknowledged he could use more personnel. Orellana said he often has 
to borrow investigators from the attorney general's office because 
his budget is modest.

"I am satisfied that the work is being done, but I am not satisfied 
because we would always want more results," said Orellana, a lawyer 
and criminologist who assumed the post in March. "Like everything in 
life, if you have more human elements, a larger budget, you think you 
can do more."

A Problem for Decades

Journalists have been under siege for decades, especially near a U.S. 
border region that remains a trouble spot. Just last week, the body 
of journalist Saul Noe Martinez of the newspaper Interdiario was 
found wrapped in a blanket after he had been kidnapped from a town 
along the Arizona border.

Journalists hailed the creation of the special prosecutor's office as 
recognition that the violence had become a national crisis. But 
political analyst Jorge Zepeda said the move created a false sense 
that the Mexican government took the problem seriously.

"The prosecutor was created by Fox as a demagogic, rhetorical attempt 
to lower the pressure in the public over the violence against 
journalists," said Zepeda, a former editor at newspapers in Mexico 
City and Guadalajara.

Jose Antonio Calcaneo, a newspaper editor in the city of 
Villahermosa, complained that President Felipe Calderon has not been 
any more willing than Fox to take on the issue. Calcaneo has seen the 
threats up close. An investigative reporter at competitor Tabasco 
Today, Rodolfo Rincon, was kidnapped in January, reportedly after 
receiving threats.

"Calderon declared himself against this wave of violence, but in his 
deeds, this has translated into nothing. Absolutely nothing," said 
Calcaneo, president of FAPERMEX, a national federation of media 
organizations. "They have practically made the special prosecutor disappear."

Calcaneo also said Orellana, the special prosecutor, has "shirked his 
responsibility" by not staking out his jurisdiction over crimes 
against journalists.

Orellana said he prefers to hand over cases in which journalists 
appear to have been victims of organized crime to SIEDO, an arm of 
the attorney general's office that investigates those groups. In 
defending his performance, he also noted that many cases remain at 
the state level and never make it to his office.

Without giving details, Orellana said his office could close some cases soon.

Orellana said he would support making crimes against journalists 
automatic federal cases. He said many reporters are threatened 
because they are investigating state authorities, and that the public 
generally has more confidence in the integrity of federal prosecutors.

Shared Blame

Carlos Lauria, Americas program director at the New York-based 
Committee to Protect Journalists, said the special prosecutor has not 
achieved any "breakthrough results," but he blamed a generally 
"dysfunctional" justice system. Lauria noted progress in some 
investigations and said a federal prosecutor still was an improvement 
over state authorities, who often are corrupt or inefficient.

Some colleagues of Ramirez, the slain Acapulco reporter, have 
complained that state investigators in Guerrero have botched the 
probe. Two men were arrested days after the killing but were released on bail.

Orellana said his office will push efforts to prevent, not merely 
prosecute, crimes against journalists. Staffers are training 
reporters how to preserve threatening e-mails and text messages that 
could be used later in criminal prosecutions, for example. About half 
of the office's 68 investigations in 2006 involved threats.

In another move welcomed by journalists, Mexican lawmakers and 
Calderon pushed through a law this month that effectively removed 
criminal penalties for slander and libel. Media organizations had 
complained that government authorities used charges to squelch 
investigative reporting.

Still, analyst Zepeda worries that journalists will continue 
censoring themselves if they think authorities cannot guarantee 
justice. The media's importance to Mexico's developing democracy 
makes the special prosecutor's work even more important, Zepeda said.

"It doesn't mean that a journalist is more important than a 
breadmaker or taxi driver," Zepeda said. "But behind every murdered 
journalist are hundreds of journalists who will stop talking about 
organized crime. The damage caused to Mexican society is immense." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake