For the second consecutive year, Mexico and Brazil are the only Latin American countries that are part of the Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which was published on Oct. 27.
This index, which ranks countries where journalists are murdered and “their killers go free,” is published by CPJ each year to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which is recognized annually on Nov. 2.
To do this, CPJ calculates the number of unsolved murders of journalists over a period of 10 years as a percentage relative to the population of each country. Of the 13 countries that make up the index this year, Mexico ranks sixth and Brazil is ninth. Both countries climbed two places in the ranks, meaning that the situation in each country worsened.
"The violence that criminal groups and local officials perpetrated against journalists allowed impunity to worsen in Latin America, where Brazil and Mexico climbed two places in the index this year,” said Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the Americas at CPJ, to the Knight Center. “But some of the highest rates of impunity [worldwide] for the murder of journalists can be attributed to the killings perpetrated by radical Islamist groups.”
As Lauría explained, although CPJ concluded this year that the highest levels of impunity are reflected in the murders committed by radical Islamist groups, it also found that “local officials and criminal groups also frequently murder journalists in retaliation for their work without facing justice,” in cases like that of Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines and Russia.
“Impunity in the murders of journalists emboldens would-be killers and forces the media to operate in a climate of fear, which in turn restricts information available to the public,” said Elisabeth Witchel, author of the report and CPJ’s consultant for the Global Campaign Against Impunity, according to an organization press release. “States need to urgently address this situation with robust mechanisms to protect, investigate, and prosecute when journalists are threatened or attacked.”
According to CPJ, 21 journalists have been killed with “complete impunity” in Mexico in the last decade. The victims were local journalists covering issues related to organized crime and corruption in states dominated by drug cartels. Those responsible for these crimes are these criminal groups, according to CPJ.
For CPJ, the representative case in Mexico is that of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa who was killed in August 2015 in Mexico City. Espinosa had fled to the capital from Veracruz because of threats against his life. The photographer was found dead in an apartment with four women; all had been shot in the head and had signs of torture.
Although CPJ notes progress with the arrest of three people linked to this crime, it also makes note of questions from various journalists about the way the investigations have been conducted.
The report also includes a setback in Mexico. Although authorities adopted a law in 2013 that gives greater jurisdiction to federal authorities to investigate crimes against freedom of expression, “no one has been brought to book through the program and at least eight journalists have been slain for their work since then.”
Mexico, along with seven other countries on the index, have appeared every year since 2008 when CPJ began to realize “how entrenched impunity is in some nations.”
In the case of Brazil, 15 journalists have been killed over the past decade “with complete impunity.” Those responsible are government officials and criminal groups, according to CPJ. The victims are journalists covering politics and corruption in localities within the interior part of the country.
However, CPJ notes as a breakthrough that Brazil convicted the suspects in six killings of journalists in the last three years, “more than any other country where CPJ has recorded journalist murders.” It added, however, that complete justice has only been won in one of these cases.
The organization highlighted the murder of editor João Miranda do Carmo which occurred outside his home in July 2016. Carmo was known for his criticism of local officials and had been threatened on at least two occasions – including one in which his car was set on fire. The threats were reported to the police.
On this last issue, CPJ said that in more than half of the homicides analyzed in Brazil, victims had previously reported threats against themselves.
As a positive aspect in general, CPJ notes that the countries listed in the index, with the exception of three, participated in UNESCO’s impunity accountability mechanism “which requests information on the status of investigations into killed journalists for the U.N. agency’s biennial report on journalist safety.”
For this year’s analysis, CPJ took into account killings of journalists that occurred between Sept 1, 2006 and Aug. 31, 2016. The report also includes a statistical table and explanations on each country that is part of the index.
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.
