(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 30 June 2000 letter to President Ernesto Zedillo, CPJ stated that it was gratified that Mexican journalists had generally been able to cover the current election campaign without government interference. However, the organisation expressed its concern about a number of recent incidents. * The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the independent federal […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 30 June 2000 letter to President Ernesto Zedillo, CPJ stated that it was gratified that Mexican journalists had generally been able to cover the current election campaign without government interference. However, the organisation expressed its concern about a number of recent incidents.
* The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the independent federal agency that oversees elections, noted that presidential candidate Vicente Fox and the National Action Party (PAN) were receiving a disproportionate amount of negative press coverage. On 19 June, IFE president José Woldenberg announced that media coverage of presidential candidates was no longer balanced. In previous elections, monitoring groups such as Accion Cívica have documented disproportionate media coverage of presidential candidates from the ruling party. Unfortunately, due to its heavy dependence on government advertising, the Mexican press remains vulnerable to government pressure.
* Lilly Téllez, the news anchor at TV Azteca, was assaulted in Mexico City on 22 June. Téllez was attacked at around 10 p.m., minutes after she wrapped up her broadcast and left the office in a chauffeur-driven car that was followed by two bodyguards in another car. When the two vehicles stopped at an intersection near the TV Azteca building, they were showered with bullets fired from the sidewalk by at least three men. Téllez escaped uninjured, but her two bodyguards and her chauffeur were hit by bullets. All remain hospitalized in stable condition. Téllez claims that she needs bodyguards because of threats from drug traffickers angered by her reporting. CPJ has called for a prompt and thorough investigation into this attack (see IFEX alert of 26 June 2000).
* The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (PGJDF) has tried to force journalist Sergio Sarmiento to reveal how he obtained an interview with former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. In early June, Sarmiento was called in to testify about the killing of Paco Stanley, the TV Azteca comedian and variety show host who was murdered in June 1999, allegedly by drug traffickers. The PGJDF has argued that questioning Sarmiento was justified in light of the findings in the Paco Stanley murder investigation. But forcing the journalist to disclose how he obtained the Salinas de Gortari interview, which had no clear connection with the Stanley case, is a violation of Sarmiento’s right to maintain the confidentiality of his sources.
* CPJ is disturbed by the prosecution of Meliton García, a reporter with the Monterrey-based daily “El Norte”. García was charged under Mexico’s federal electoral law for fraudulently obtaining a voter credential, after he published a two-part series in “El Norte” on 16 and 17 May that recounted his own efforts to obtain a voting credential using a false birth certificate. García could face up to six years in jail if convicted. In the article, García described how coyotes, or unofficial document expediters who congregate outside government offices, sell false birth certificates. IFE authorities referred the case to the special prosecutor for electoral offenses. Based on its analysis of the law, CPJ believes that García could only be guilty of this crime if he had acted with criminal intent (dolo). Since García’s actions were motivated by a desire to inform the public about what he believed to be a pressing social problem, CPJ firmly believes that no crime has been committed. While García’s journalistic methods have sparked an ethical debate among his colleagues, this is not a criminal matter (see IFEX alert of 25 May 2000).
* In addition to these incidents, CPJ is continuing to investigate the cases of two journalists who were murdered this year. On 29 April, the body of radio reporter José Ramírez Puente was found in his car in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. He had been stabbed more than thirty times (see IFEX alerts of 8 and 2 May 2000). On 9 April, the body of Pablo Pineda, who covered crime for the Matamoros daily “La Opinion”, was dumped across the border in Los Indios, just outside Harlingen, Texas (see IFEX alerts of 18 and 11 April 2000). The motives for both murders remain unclear. CPJ would welcome any new information on these two cases.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– urging His Excellency’s administration to maintain its commitment to ensuring that the Mexican press may function free of government interference
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
President of Mexico
Los Pinos
Mexico City, Mexico
Fax: +52 5 395 6790
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
