(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is a 9 April 2008 joint statement by AMARC, ARTICLE 19 and Reporters without Borders: AMARC, ARTICLE 19 and RSF condemn murder of two community journalists in Mexico AMARC-Mexico, ARTICLE 19 and Reporters without Borders condemn the murder of two community radio journalists and demand: 1. Clarification on the events that […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is a 9 April 2008 joint statement by AMARC, ARTICLE 19 and Reporters without Borders:
AMARC, ARTICLE 19 and RSF condemn murder of two community journalists in Mexico
AMARC-Mexico, ARTICLE 19 and Reporters without Borders condemn the murder of two community radio journalists and demand:
1. Clarification on the events that took place on 8 April 2008 on the highway to San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, which resulted in the murder of Teresa Bautista Merino and Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, journalists of the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio.
2. Punishment of the masterminds of the crime and its material perpetrators who took these journalists’ lives.
3. Protection of the lives and physical safety of the survivors – Faustino Vázquez Martínez, Cristina Martínez Flores and their two children – who are key witnesses to the event, as well as the lives and physical safety of the other members of the radio station.
4. An end to the climate of impunity that is allowing such acts of aggression, disappearances and murders to continue to be committed against members of community media, as well as journalists and media outlets in general, which is making Mexico the continent’s most dangerous country in which to work as a journalist (see: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 )
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Send appeals to the authorities:
– asking for prompt clarification of the murders, punishment of those responsible and protection for the witnesses and their children
APPEALS TO:
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de la República
(President)
México, D.F., México
Tel: +52 55 5093 5300
Fax: +55 5093 4901
E-mail: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx
Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo
Jefe de la Oficina de la Presidencia de la República
(Chief of the Office of the President)
México, D.F., México
Tel: +52 55 5093 3400
E-mail: jcmourino@segob.gob.mx
Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza
Procurador General de la República
(Attorney General)
México, D.F., México
Tel: +52 55 5346 0114 / 5346 0115
Fax: +52 55 5346 0908
E-mail: yess@pgr.gob.mx
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Gobernador de Oaxaca
(Oaxaca Governor)
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, México
Tel: +52 951 502 05 30
Fax: +52 951 502 05 31
E-mail: gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
José Luis Soberanes
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
(President of the National Human Rights Commission)
México, D.F., México
Tel: +52 55 1719 2000, x 8293 y 8280
E-mail: correo@cndh.org.mx
C. Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco
Fiscal Especial para la Atención de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas
(Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists)
México, D.F., México
Fax: +52 55 5346 43 70
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
Updates the Bautista Merino and Martínez Sánchez case: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/92418
For an extended version of this joint statement, see: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/mexico-gov-statement.pdf
