(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 April 2006 IAPA press release: IAPA protests harassment against a reporter from El Universal newspaper, Mexico Calls for probe into incidents outside La Crónica de Hoy plant MIAMI, Florida (April 24, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today protested harassments and threats aimed at Rafael Rivera […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 April 2006 IAPA press release:
IAPA protests harassment against a reporter from El Universal newspaper, Mexico
Calls for probe into incidents outside La Crónica de Hoy plant
MIAMI, Florida (April 24, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today protested harassments and threats aimed at Rafael Rivera Millán, correspondent of the Mexico City daily newspaper El Universal in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán state, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, in reprisal for his coverage of a local labor dispute. The hemispheric free press organization called on the authorities to investigate the matter and provide guarantees for the reporter’s personal safety.
On 20 April 2006, Rivera Millán had his camera confiscated and was threatened with his home and office being set on fire by activists belonging to the miners’ union that had been involved in dispute with state and federal authorities in recent weeks.
During a union rally, militants said they would take action against Rivera Millán over a report of his in his newspaper’s online version, in which he disclosed official information on the alleged existence of a union “shock squad” that operates during clashes with federal and state police in which two workers were killed.
Following the threats, Rivera Millán sent his family out of the city.
In letters sent to Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca and Michoacán State Governor Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, asked that at both the state and federal level “orders be given that the harassment be investigated and Rivera Millán’s personal safety and that of his family, and his ability to do his job, are safeguarded, as well as that of other journalists who might be subject to attacks because of their coverage of the labor dispute.”
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, also mentioned a demonstration that was staged outside the offices of Mexico City newspaper La Crónica de Hoy on 15 March. Some 300 demonstrators shouted insults and threats at the newspaper and specifically at Francisco Reséndiz, author of a series of articles about the alleged presence in Mexico of cells sent by the Venezuelan government that are said to be infiltrating groups supporting Manuel López Obrador in his bid for the Mexican presidency on the Democratic Revolution Party ticket.
Marroquín asked the authorities to investigate this incident also “so as to prevent any violent outcome.” In addition, he called for action to be taken to ensure reporters’ safety, “especially at a time of marked agitation in the country in the run-up to the July 2 elections.”
