A Mexican congressman has proposed a law to regulate news coverage about the arrests of organized crime suspects, according to the official state news agency Notimex.
The congressman, Josué Valdés Huezo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI in Spanish), introduced the initiative that would reform the Radio and Television Federal Law and the Federal Penal Code, preventing federal authorities from showing to the media suspects who had not been charged with a crime, reported the newspaper La Jornada.
In Mexico, it is common for the government to organize press conferences after arresting suspected drug dealers, and even to allow interviews with suspects before they are charged.
According to the congressman, the goal of the bill is not to attack freedom of expression or interfere with press freedom, but rather to avoid the creation of false heroes for children and youths, according to the newspaper Uno Más Uno.
The legislator, from the state of Mexico, said such press conferences violate the Federal Criminal Procedure Code, as only the accused, the defense, and the victim have the right to information from the preliminary investigation. In 2010, the Federal Institute of Information Access showed that 492 press releases from the Attorney General's office contained information that should remain confidential and that violated the Federal Transparency Law, according to the newspaper Provincia.
