Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

International Human Rights Group visit Mexico-RSF

Nessuno | 07.03.2007 02:40 | Repression | Zapatista | World

FEDERAL PARLIAMENT AND INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS ASKED TO INTERCEDE IN OAXACA CRISIS
Reporters Without Borders sends them chapter on media of fact-finding report by International Civilian Commission for Human Rights Observation

Ms. Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, president of the Senate Human Rights Commission
Mr. Gerardo Priego Tapia, president of the Chamber of Deputies Special Commission for Monitoring Attacks on the Press and Media
Mr. Ignacio Álvarez, special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)

Dear Ms. Ibarra, Mr. Priego and Mr. Álvarez,

The International Civilian Commission for Human Rights Observation (CCIODH) - consisting of 41 members of organisations from six countries (France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, United States and New Zealand) - carried out its fifth visit to Mexico from 16 December to 20 January to investigate human rights violations during the social and political crisis in the state of Oaxaca that began last May.

The chapter of the commission's fact-finding report that deals with the media is made public here by
Reporters Without Borders, which was represented on the commission. The full report was already presented to the general public in Mexico City on 3 March. The chapter that follows deals not only with attacks on the media during the conflict, but also the media's coverage of the conflict.

During its month-long visit, the CCIODH conducted more than 400 interviews with members of civil society and officials in Oaxaca and the federal capital about the uprising by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the Oaxaca state government led by Governor Ulíses Ruiz Ortiz and the very harsh crackdown on this movement by the state government and federal authorities.

The events in Oaxaca left a heavy toll on the press. As well as the occupations of news media by activists, around 20 local and national journalists were subjected to intimidation, physical attacks and torture. Two were killed at the height of the crisis last autumn. Freelance cameraman Bradley Will, 36, of the Indymedia agency was fatally shot on 27 October in the locality of Santa Lucia del Camino. His murder was initially attributed to five state employees, two of whom were arrested and then quickly released. The police subsequently tried to blame the APPO for Will's death.

The investigation into Will's death, which is now at a standstill, again highlights the inadequacies of the judicial system and the powerlessness of the office of the special federal prosecutor for crimes against journalists, created on 15 February 2006. Impunity also continues to prevail in the 8 December murder in Santiago Juxtlahuaca of Raúl Marcial Pérez, a columnist for the daily El Gráfico, who was also known as a community leader. It seems that all the possible leads in this case have not been explored.

The crisis in Oaxaca was the climax of an especially grim year for the Mexican press, in which a total of nine journalists were murdered and two disappeared. In the light of the report published by the CCIODH, Reporters Without Borders recommends that:

- a commission of enquiry of the federal parliament should continue the efforts begun by the CCIODH to shed full light on the human rights and press freedom violations during the events in Oaxaca,

- this commission should also shed light on the serious abuses of authority by local officials as regards the media, not only in the state of Oaxaca but also in the states of Sonora, Guanajuato and Puebla (see release of 25 January 2007),

- the commission, in order to do this, should be able to question the governors of the states concerned and the judicial and police officials under their supervision,

- the office of the special prosecutor for crimes against journalists should have the necessary resources and independence to be able to successfully carry out impartial investigations and guarantee the protection of victims,

- in the absence of significant progress in the investigations, the cases of journalists murdered in Mexico (Will being the only foreigner among the 30 killed since 2000) should be referred to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

We thank you in advance for giving this matter your careful consideration.

Sincerely,

Robert Ménard
Secretary-General

--

Benoît Hervieu
Despacho Américas / Americas desk
Reporters sans frontières
5, rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris - France

tél. : +33 (0) 1 44 83 84 68
fax : +33 (0) 1 45 23 11 51
e-mail :  ameriques@rsf.org
/  americas@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
www.leblogmedias.com (en français)

Nessuno

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech