(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA concerned about attacks against newspaper in northern Mexico Miami (September 21, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern over a series of hostile attacks against Frontera newspaper in Tijuana, Baja California, and warned of an increase in violence against the media […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA concerned about attacks against newspaper in northern Mexico
Miami (September 21, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern over a series of hostile attacks against Frontera newspaper in Tijuana, Baja California, and warned of an increase in violence against the media and journalists in Mexico, particularly in areas near the border with the United States.
In separate incidents on September 9 and 11, the Frontera building’s main entrance and two windows were partially destroyed by gunfire. These attacks follow a 7 June incident in which someone abandoned a vehicle with 800 kilograms of marijuana in the newspaper’s parking lot.
Rafael Molina, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, stated that the IAPA “is alert to the situation of violence against the press, which has been on the rise this year, and is especially concerned over the attacks that have been occurring on the country’s northern border.” He added that the press freedom situation in Mexico will be discussed during the organization’s upcoming annual meeting in October, in Guatemala.
The following Mexican journalists have been murdered this year: Francisco Arratia Saldierna, who wrote for newspapers in Tamaulipas; Francisco J. Ortiz from the weekly Zeta in Tijuana; and Roberto Mora García from El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo. Molina called for safety measures to be taken so that the attacks against Frontera in Tijuana do not lead to a new wave of violence.
IAPA’s next public advertisement in its campaign against impunity, which will be published in October by some 250 newspapers throughout the Western Hemisphere, calls on the Mexican government to step up investigations and punish those responsible for the above-mentioned crimes.
