Is it still possible to inform in Mexico?

Journalists demonstrate on April 1, 2020 in Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz against the assassinations of their colleagues.

(illustration photo) HECTOR QUINTANAR / AFP

Text by: Géraud Bosman-Delzons Follow

11 min

As part of the Bayeux War Correspondents Prize, a stele is unveiled this Thursday, October 8 in tribute to journalists killed around the world during the year.

Mexico is paying one of the heaviest prices for information: in the past three years, at least 25 media professionals have perished in this country, officially at peace.

"Fear and self-censorship have invaded the editorial staff," testifies Paula Saucedo, coordinator at the Mexico office of Article 19, an international NGO fighting for freedom of expression and the defense of the press.

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Paula Saucedo, prevention coordinator at the Mexican office within the NGO Article 19. Paulo Saucedo for RFI

In Mexico, it takes two hands to count the murders of journalists (with a clear decline, however, in 2020, as everywhere in the world, according to RSF).

Since the advent of democracy in 2000, things have only gotten worse.

In what state of mind is the profession today?

Over the past twenty years, 135 journalists have died in Mexico.

In 2020, Article 19 recorded the murder of four journalists:

(State of Veracruz),

(State of Sonora),

(State of Guerrero) and, a month ago,

(State of Veracruz).

[For its part, Reporters Without Borders counts eight deaths in the country in 2020, Editor's note].

Fear has invaded the editorial staff.

Both because journalists are perfectly aware of the dangerousness of the context and above all because they witness attacks from their colleagues.

In Cancun (State of Quintana Roo), attacks on the media are carried out by municipal police.

Article 19 may denounce them, they continue.

Since they cannot trust the police, journalists have two options: stop their job or leave the area.

Because once these people - from whatever background they come from - target you, you have little choice ...

Yesterday, Mexican journalist Julio Valdivia left his residence on a motorcycle to report on a story in the eastern state of #Veracruz.

At 2:30 pm on the same day, his body was found beheaded near train tracks in the town of Motzorongo.https: //t.co/AxSZO1nBxq

  Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) September 10, 2020

The victims are often journalists from local media ...

All of these journalists were killed for their investigations into corruption and organized crime.

State corruption and connections with the underworld are the key factor.

Organized crime operates mainly in more remote areas.

In regions like Iguala or Guerrero, the separation between the mafias and the government is totally blurred.

Local journalists are therefore directly exposed.

How are these obstacles to information embodied on a daily basis?

It is obviously very risky to deal with subjects such as corruption and security.

But even working on territorial issues,

can get you into big problems.

Article 19 recorded 406 attacks on the press during the first half of 2020. Being a journalist in Mexico does not only mean working in precarious conditions, such as being hired in the project, being temporarily without a contract and without social security, but it also means taking care of your own security.

Working in the field also means exposing yourself to intimidation from the security forces or mafia.

Posting on social media can lead to insults, harassment and death threats.

The attacks also take a sexual turn.

But it gets worse: the attacks very often come from government actors.

The current President of the Republic [Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, since December 2018] has cut media subsidies and nicknames journalists the “Fifi” (snobs and pretentious) or “chayoteros” (rumor peddlers).

He personally stigmatizes their work, which generates even more persecution and a feeling of impunity.

As for the families of journalists, they are sometimes the object of veritable campaign of slander.

A context that favors self-censorship in the editorial staff, as in the

Yes, this situation of general impunity means that journalists know that their investigations expose them to the worst.

States, such

, have what are called “zones of silence”, where reporting on sensitive issues is not even possible.

Investigating in these areas is limited to saying what the officials, or outright criminals, want people to know.

Article 19 identified a number of them in the states of Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, the towns of Iguala in Guerrero, Benito Juarez in Quintana Roo, Penjamo Celaya and Cortazar in Guanajato.

Veracruz in particular is one of the most dangerous states for the press.

Numerous assassinations have taken place there: of the 135 murders of journalists that we have recorded since 2000, 30 have taken place in this state.

It has consistently been in the top 5 deadliest states since 2013.

During the funeral of journalist Jorge Celestino Ruiz, who worked for the daily El Grafico de Xalapa, shot dead in August 2019 in the municipality of Actopan, in the state of Veracruz.

VICTORIA RAZO / AFP

For journalists who work on sensitive issues, how do they manage to establish a relationship of trust, reciprocal, with their sources of information (political, judicial, police, etc.) when the underworld is everywhere and among the main employers of the country?

journalists should be asked, but I believe that for them, it is more a question of establishing a sufficient and operative basis of trust, but not necessarily what one can commonly understand by trust.

This minimal trust requires an excellent understanding of regional logics and the complexities of politics.

This requires a large panoply of sources to verify and cross-reference information, to pay attention to meeting places, to whom information is shared ... Journalists are forced to always find better channels of communication with their sources. , since their phones can be hacked, as we showed in 2017 in the case of the

[

, Editor's note]

► Read also:

99% of murders of journalists go unresolved and go unpunished, you say.

How to explain it

This figure, established in

, is based on several criteria.

First, there is a lack of political will and competence, in terms of material and financial resources.

In cases that we have documented, less than 24 hours after the murder, the authorities had already suppressed the complaint, in view of the work that was being carried out by the victim.

They simply condemn the cartel orally or evoke a simple "personal vendetta".

For example, in 2012, after the murder of Regina Martinez, authorities decided it was a crime of passion, unrelated to her investigation into the links between drug trafficking and Veracruz politicians ...

In addition, bureaucracy slows down legal proceedings.

Victims and plaintiffs give up in the face of its heaviness and corruption, which is everywhere present.

Finally, not all crimes are reported by journalists themselves who expect nothing from justice.

In 2018, the election year, you said that nearly half of those responsible for the murders of journalists are civil servants.

The investigative work we do does not stop at interviewing the victims, it includes a whole part of research and verification on the attacks and their perpetrators, who are categorized.

The numbers change a bit over time, however, the tendency remains persistent of the involvement of officials in direct attacks on the press.

During the first half of 2020, 48% of assaults on journalists were perpetrated or sponsored by public figures.

National statistics show that cartels are not responsible for the majority of crimes.

But in some places, like Guerrero, the links between organized crime and local executives are so close they merge.

It is in this context that the majority of attacks take place.

This is also the case with Julio Valdivia, the latest victim to date, who was found beheaded on September 9 in Veracruz.

it covered the violence on the border between the states of Veracruz and Oaxaca.

We suspect the mafia, but it is not yet confirmed.

And it is difficult to establish a single factor, motive or trigger of his crime, so volatile are the dynamics of the area.

Crimes against freedom of expression are investigated by a special prosecutor's office: FEADLE, created in 2010. It is therefore not effective?

FEADLE has in no way proven its effectiveness: as of 2019, 14 convictions have been handed down out of 1,614 cases investigated.

What about the Mechanism to Protect Journalists, launched two years later?

This mechanism is essential for the protection of journalists: it provides security cameras, bodyguards, the implementation of an alarm system in the event of an attack, etc.

In addition, it increases the political risk of attacking the media.

However, this strategy is essentially reactive: it is only useful after the attack has passed.

It would benefit from being more preventive.

In particular by strengthening the fight against impunity.

El Mecanismo de Protección para Personas Defensoras y Periodistas se creó una respuesta del Estado mexicano para Garantizar el ejercicio of the freedom of expression in nuestro país.

pic.twitter.com/4tpbX7gLaX

  CNDH in México (@CNDH) October 7, 2020

On May 15, 2017, Javier Valdez Cardenas, a famous investigative journalist, collaborator of Agence France-Presse (and author of

Unfortunately no.

If this judicial outcome deserves to be celebrated, how many other murders remain unanswered out of the 135 committed in twenty years?

We take a step forward for two back.

Many assassinations and attacks go unpunished and push journalists to more self-censorship, fear and displacement to find safety.

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