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2015 is the deadliest year for Mexican press under Peña Nieto, report says

This has been the deadliest year for the Mexican press since President Enrique Peña Nieto took the presidency in 2012, according to freedom of expression advocacy organization Article 19.

Seven journalists have been killed in Mexico in 2015. Three of the murders happened in the third quarter (July to September): Juan Mendoza Delgado in Veracruz, Filadelfo Sánchez Sarmiento in Oaxaca and Rubén Espinosa in Mexico City.

The organization previously documented that in 2014, five journalists presumably were killed in Mexico because of their work.

On Nov. 5, Article 19 released the interactive “Third Quarterly Report 2015: Epidemic of the Fear to Communicate."

With three more months in 2015 left to go, the organization has already documented 303 aggressions against journalists so far this year. For comparison, the organization documented a total 326 aggressions against journalists for all of 2014 and a total 330 aggressions for 2013.

Aggressions include physical attacks, threats, detentions, forced displacements, kidnappings, threats and harassment, murders, attacks with explosives or firearms, and more.

For this past quarter, From July to Sept. 2015, there were 68 aggressions against journalists and media in México.

The states with the most attacks were as follows: Mexico City (25), Veracruz (12), Puebla (6) and Guerrero (6), according to the report. Forty-nine of the attacks were against men, 13 against women and six against media outlets.

Other notable findings are below:

  • threats accompanied by firearms and sexual harm doubled in comparison to the previous quarter
  • there is an increase in using social networks to bully, harass and threat
  • attacks via the Internet more frequently affect female journalists
  • there is an increase in attacks against radio presenters, bloggers, Twitter users and media workers that do not perform journalistic work
  • public officials have been the main aggressors against journalists in the past seven quarters, with the exception of the second quarter of 2014

To read the full report (in Spanish) and more detailed statistics, visit the Article 19 website.

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.

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