In an interview with Reporters Without Borders, Mexican journalist Verónica Basurto Gamero, who has lived in exile since March, criticized the country's Mechanism to Protect Journalists, saying that two months of threats and harassment made her doubt the effectiveness of this government resource meant to help members of the press.
The threats came after an eight-month investigation that Basurto worked on with a French colleague and in which they linked high-level officials with irregularities in the investigation of kidnapping cases.
"When I entered the Mechanism, they were supposed to provide me with an answer in only 12 hours, and I didn't receive one until practically two days later."
Reporters Without Borders called for "serious investigations on the origins of these threats and attacks against journalists that are, or could be, under the protection of this Mechanism. Protection is not possible if there isn't a fight against impunity."
The organization also highlighted the cases of Jorge Carrasco, a journalist with news magazine Proceso who had to leave the country temporarily after receiving threats for his investigation on the murder of her colleague Regina Martínez, and of Anabel Hernández, who was threatened for accusing Mexican officials of having links to criminal organizations, and whose armed protection could come to an end in June.
