Mexico: IAPA calls for investigation into harassment

In a letter sent to the Government’s Secretary, Santiago Creel Miranda, IAPA President Alejandro Miró Quesada and Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, informed and urged the Mexican official to make inquiries into the complaints presented to the hemispheric organization on various incidents apparently caused by the Government of Oaxaca against Noticias newspaper limiting the newspaper’s ability to operate.

Below is the complete text of the letter:

“Dear Mr. Secretary of Government:

On behalf of the Inter American Press Association, comprised of representatives from more than 1,300 newspapers in the Americas, we call your attention to the situation facing Noticias newspaper in Oaxaca, whose directors have complained that they have been pressured by state officials, thus restricting freedom of the press for this media outlet.

Although we understand that this is a state matter, we come to you under the presumption that all recourses at that level have been exhausted.

According to Ericel Gómez Nucamendi, owner of Noticias, former Governor José Murat Casab and current State Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, both from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, are responsible for instigating actions against the newspaper and its directors in retaliation for its independent and critical editorial stance.

The main complaint is regarding the occupation, which the government claims to be for “agricultural reasons,” since the end of November of a rural plot of land used as a warehouse for newspapers and other supplies for newspaper production. This building has been seized on two occasions, during both governments, and, during the first, someone was murdered, which led to the motive for wanting to incriminate Gómez Nucamendi.

The occupation has continued and the newspaper has been unable to access its goods and they have had to make special arrangements with their supplier to receive weekly shipments of paper, which until now has kept the newspaper from having to shut down.

The directors also charge that the newspaper is discriminated against through the use of official advertising and that the government pressures private advertisers to not advertise in Noticias or they will have problems for their businesses in the government.  Also, four of the newspaper’s news stands have been set on fire and there is constant harassment of directors of Noticias that can be seen painted in public places.

Mr. Secretary, we kindly ask that you place attention on this matter and promptly investigate this situation that casts a doubt on freedom of the press in Mexico. We point out that, as stated in the Sixth Principle of the Declaration of Chapultepec on freedom of expression and of the press, “The media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say.”

FUENTE: nota.texto7