The Mexican federal government will carry out an audit of all contracts given out to provide security to journalists and human rights advocates during the administration of former president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), according to the Campaign for Free Expression.
An investigation from Mexican newspaper El Universal published in January revealed irregularities in a 14 million pesos (USD 1.09 million) contract to provide security to reporters and human rights advocates, given to Group LOB-RI S.A. de C.V. by the Secretariat of Interior. According to El Universal, the contract was cancelled a year later due to a “lack of quality” in the security teams, but the government did not document the problems or put the company on a blacklist of security companies, as required by the law.
In 2011, the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights Unit, under the Secretariat of Interior, requested the installation of 23 CCTV systems, 3 GPS systems, and alarms in immigrant hostels, the homes of journalists, and in the offices of Artículo 19, an organization that advocates for free expression in Mexico. However, the journalists and the organizations say they never received the security equipment, according to El Universal.
The contracts were signed before the Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists and Defenders of Human Rights came into effect in November 2012. Since that date, 11 journalists have received protection through the mechanism, reported the Human Rights Unit of the Secretariat of Interior to the newspaper Milenio.
Recently, the Mexican Senate created a commission to shed light on the murder of journalists as well as review the cases of journalists imprisoned for supposed connections to organized crime, said El Universal. Additionally, the Senate will set up supports and volunteers for relatives of journalists who were murdered, disappeared, or wounded as a result of attacks against free expression.
A report from the National Commission on Human Rights revealed that since 1999, 81% of crimes against journalists have gone unpunished, said La Jornada.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
