(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 June 2000 IAPA press release: SIP calls for investigation into attack on journalist Miami (23 June 2000)– The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) expressed its concern over an incident which resulted in injuries to three people while they were accompanying television reporter Lilly Téllez. IAPA urged the Mexican authorities […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 June 2000 IAPA press release:
SIP calls for investigation into attack on journalist
Miami (23 June 2000)– The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) expressed its concern over an incident which resulted in injuries to three people while they were accompanying television reporter Lilly Téllez. IAPA urged the Mexican authorities to investigate the incident, which appeared to be an attempt to kill the journalist.
Téllez, a reporter for TV Azteca, was not injured in the shooting. The incident occurred on Thursday night along one of the main streets of the Mexican capital. The driver travelling with her, and two escorts who were in a second vehicle, were wounded by shots fired from a moving vehicle by unknown assailants. The journalist initially rejected the possibility that robbery was the motive for the attack.
Over the last few weeks Téllez had reported on narco-trafficking in Tijuana and on complaints lodged against the Federal District Office of the Prosecutor and others for the way in which they have conducted investigations into the previous year’s assassination of another TV Azteca reporter, Francisco Stanley.
“We call on the local authorities to clear up the questions about this attack, which appears to have been directed against Téllez. We will vigilantly await the results of the official investigations,” stated Rafael Molina, president of IAPA’s Commission for Press Freedom and Information.
Molina, of “El Nacional”, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, underlined that “given the importance of the themes covered by Téllez, it is necessary to shed light on the incident to know whether it was a crime connected to the exercise of journalistic activity.” He also announced that IAPA assigned an investigator from the organisation’s Rapid Response Team to Mexico to follow up on the case.
