Several journalistic organizations condemned the recent comments made by Veracruz’s director of public safety against a photojournalist that published pictures of a self-defense group.
Veracruz’s Public Safety secretary, Arturo Bermúdez, publicly said that photojournalist Félix Márquez, with Cuartoscuro agency, should be placed behind bars for taking pictures of a paramilitary group called the Self-defense Civil Guard, based in the town of Tlaxicoyan, and even questioned the authenticity of Márquez’s pictures. “The only person that should be detained is the one that went to take the pictures and is paying citizens to do graffiti, put things, and that’s something that’s being done in different parts of the republic [...] Security doesn’t win during an electoral period,” said Bermúdez according to the Freedom of Expression Program.
Cuartoscuro defended the authenticity of the images and said that the photographer decided to leave Veracruz for safety reasons, according to a letter signed by the agency’s director Pedro Valtierra and published on their website.
Journalism organization Article 19 said that Bermúdez’s comments put Márquez in danger and send an inhibitory message to other journalists. What’s more, the organization criticized that Veracruz continues to be the most dangerous state in Mexico for journalists. There were 28 documented aggressions against the press in the state last year.
On Friday March 15, a group of at least 25 journalists protested at the state’s capital of Xalapa to show their solidarity with Márquez under the rallying cry “Veracruz, photographers are not criminals,” reported Imagen del Golfo news agency.
After the organizations’ condemnations, the Public Safety secretary offered an apology for his comments and said that he did not intend to threaten the photojournalist or discredit his work, the news site SDP Noticias reported.
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.
