In 2011, 172 attacks against the Mexican press were registered, and nine of these were killings. That's up from the 155 attacks recorded in 2010, according to a report from the organization Article 19 released Tuesday, March 20. The report, Forced Silence: The State Complicit in Violence Against the Press, shows that public officials were responsible for more than half of these attacks, according to the magazine Proceso.
Most attacks against journalists in Mexico occurred in the areas of Veracruz, Mexico City, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Oaxaca, reported Article 19.
"If you try to buy life insurance, the moment you say you're a journalist, you're denied," one Mexican journalist said, according to the document presented along with the report.
The organization criticized the numbers presented by the National Human Rights Commission saying that they lack credibility because there is no criteria and cases are not followed through. Article 19 also criticized the Mexican government saying that until now the government's response is all talk, with no results, because the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes against Freedom of Expression only generated one conviction in the six years of its existence and does not make use of its entire budget.
Following the report, the London-based organization demanded that the Mexican government establish measures of protection for journalists, and to use the initial budget to grant precautionary measures for journalists who have been threatened.
