(PFC/IFEX) – On 10 March 2003, Quitana Roo State judicial police took journalist Adriana Varillas to the Public Prosecutorâs Office in an attempt to force Varillas to reveal her sources. The police action came in response to a report she had published exposing irregularities and the complicity of a civil servant in deals with local […]
(PFC/IFEX) – On 10 March 2003, Quitana Roo State judicial police took journalist Adriana Varillas to the Public Prosecutorâs Office in an attempt to force Varillas to reveal her sources. The police action came in response to a report she had published exposing irregularities and the complicity of a civil servant in deals with local and foreign investors in Cancún.
The legal action against Varillas is connected to a complaint filed by Municipal Director of Ecology Gerardo Gomez Nieto against former employees of the consulting firm Sylvatica for the illegal removal of documents. Gomez was formerly the director of Sylvatica. Several news reports have referred to him as the “judge and accomplice”, because he participated in Sylvaticaâs environmental assessment and later endorsed the evaluation in his position as municipal director of Ecology. Gomez stated that once he began working at the municipality, he resigned from his post at Sylvatica. According to Gomez, this should free him from any conflict of interest.
The police did not tell Varillas why they were taking her to the Public Prosecutorâs Office, and once there they did not allow her lawyers to enter the office.
PFC sent a letter to Quintana Roo Governor JoaquÃn Ernesto Hedricks DÃaz expressing their concern over the involvement of the police and Public Prosecutorâs office in an incident that threatens the confidentiality of journalistsâ sources. “To call journalists as witnesses or as participants in judicial proceedings against those charged with corruption, creates a climate of fear and silence that threatens a journalistâs ability to protect their sources,” PFC stated in their letter.
The letter to the Quintana Roo governor and information regarding this case can be found (in Spanish) at http://portal-pfc.org/perseguidos/2003/027.html.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the governor of Quintana Roo:
– asking him to call on the Public Prosecutorâs Office and the judicial police to stop summoning journalists as it threatens journalistâs right to protect their sources
– calling on him to institute mechanisms for access to information, to enable the media and the public to freely access information regarding state agencies or private companies that provide public services
Appeals To
JoaquÃn Ernesto Hedricks DÃaz
Quintana Roo State Governor
Tel: +52 983 835 0500, ext. 1185
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
