A commission formed by the Mexican Chamber of Deputies approved the federal government to investigate crimes against journalists with the cases to be tried in local courts, reported the newspaper El Universal.
The announcement was made a day after rapporteurs from the United Nations and Organization of American States presented a report on freedom of expression in Mexico blasting the country's slow response to end the culture of impunity surrounding crimes against the press. Mexico's chronic violence against journalists has earned it the dubious honor of most dangerous country in Latin America for press workers, according to several organizations.
The Mexican and Central American office of Article 19 also denounced the Mexican government's scant attempts to address impunity for crimes against journalists at the 143rd Assembly of the Inter American Commission of Human Rights in Washington, D.C., reported the website Ciudadanía Express.
The organization criticized a lack of protocol and specific strategy for responsible organizations to investigate killings and disappearances of journalists, and the tendency to discredit journalists before the investigation begins. There is also no mechanism for journalists under threat to solicit protection, reported Cuidadanía Express.
So far in 2011, 13 journalists have been killed in Mexico and only two of the cases have been solved.
