In Mexico, journalists must resort to self-censorship, suffer from discredit by authorities, physical and cyber attacks, harassment and intimidation, which limits the ability of the media to investigate, according to Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of 2022, issued by the United States Department of State.
According to the report in the document, although the media in the country expressed a wide variety of points of view without restrictions, Mexican journalists often self-censor for fear of reprisals from officials and transnational criminal groups; In addition to the fact that, according to non-governmental organizations, there were 15 murders up to September of last year.
For its part, the report found that Article 19 released the record of 331 attacks against journalists between January and June 2022, of which nearly half were against reporters covering political corruption issues.
The Ministry of the Interior had a number of 632 registered verbal and physical attacks against journalists between 2012 and 2021. Of this total, almost half (47%) came from public servants.
Also, the document indicated that the politicians, among whom they pointed to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, publicly discredited and criticized the reporters, in order to present them as biased, partisan and corrupt.
The report showed that, in terms of violence and harassment, the high levels of impunity, in attacks and murders against reporters who covered topics such as crime, corruption and politics, led to a reduction in freedom of the press and expression.
On the subject of censorship or content restrictions, the US report reported that human rights and freedom of expression groups detailed that some local governments censored the media; in addition to the fact that, despite reductions in advertising budgets, the Government continued to have influence and financial impact on communication companies.
On the other hand, they indicated that there are no criminal laws against defamation or slander, but nine states have criminal laws regarding these acts.
Defamation and libel crimes are prosecuted in four states, with penalties of three days to five years in prison and fines for defamation or slander. In five states, slander is punishable and 25 states have laws protecting authorities from alleged insults.
Armed Forces Violations
The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2022 also detailed unlawful or arbitrary homicides, forced disappearance, torture, cruel punishment, inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention, among other violations, by police forces, the Army, and other government officials.
The report highlighted the cases of the murder, in April by members of the National Guard, against a student in Guanajuato and in which another young man was injured; and the murder, by members of the National Defense Secretariat in August 2022, of a four-year-old girl and the injuries to her brother in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
Also, the US document reported that, between January and August of last year, the National Human Rights Commission received seven complaints that accused government agents (including three members of the Army and three from the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic) for enforced disappearances.
In the case of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, cruel punishment and other types of abuse, it was reported that the CNDH registered 32 complaints for torture and 94 for arbitrary detentions. Of these complaints, 43 were against members of the National Guard, 37 against members of the Attorney General’s Office, 24 against the Secretary of National Defense and 17 against the Secretary of the Navy.
They seek to guarantee social security to communicators
The coordinator of the Morena Parliamentary Group, Ignacio Mier Velazco, assured that the budget for the following year will have sufficient resources for the federal government’s pilot program that seeks to grant social security to journalists.
The also president of the San Lázaro Political Coordination Board added that, soon, the deputies will discuss the repeal of some articles of the Social Communication Law so that states and municipalities have the freedom to manage, with transparency, the budget in subject.
Mier Velazco pointed out that, according to data from the 2021 National Occupation and Employment Survey, in the country 41,113 people are dedicated to journalism and about 15% work independently.
For this reason, he recalled that the Federal Government, through the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), implemented a pilot program to incorporate 8,000 communicators into social security, until 2024.
Due to the above, the leader of the Morena faction promised that in the 2024 Budget he will contemplate the incorporation of independent journalists into social security, which includes health and maternity insurance; of life, retirement, work risks, as well as medical, pharmaceutical and hospital care, among other benefits.
And it is that he stressed that such resources are important to safeguard the labor rights of Mexican journalists, for which he assured that the 2024 Budget will guarantee sufficient resources so that they have social security.
We start from a constitutional right: the right that people have to be informed, and for them to be able to exercise that right there must be the media and for this there must be journalists,” he said.
Likewise, he informed that in the next few days in the Chamber of Deputies the repeal of some articles of the General Law of Social Communication will be discussed, so that each municipality and each state have the freedom and free will to manage, in a transparent manner. , your budget in matter.
(With information from Maritza Pérez)
