Mexican Publishers Unite to Combat Violence

At the Meeting of Publishers of the Northern Border Region, held yesterday in Hermosillo, Sonora state, they drafted and signed the “Declaration of Hermosillo,” a document in which they agreed to band together to fight violence against journalists. The Declaration sets forth a series of actions to be taken, including nomination of a special team of investigative reporters to continue the work of murdered colleagues, publication of public awareness campaigns and training of journalists.

Following a welcome by Juan Fernando Healy, editor of the host newspaper El Imparcial, IAPA President Alejandro Miró Quesada told the meeting that “it is auspicious that executives of 40 media outlets have gathered to coordinate strategies and together confront the organized crime that is afflicting the region.” He added that the media should be “the first to act in the face of this serious problem and that is what you are doing today.”

Miró Quesada, editor of the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, said that beyond what the media is doing, Mexican authorities must not shirk their duty to guarantee the free flow of information.

Among those attending the meeting from states on the Mexico-United States border – Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Sinaloa – was Jesus Blancornelas, editor of the Tijuana weekly paper Zeta, who has been the victim of several attempts on his life by drug traffickers. Blancornelas urged his colleagues “to put the logos of our companies to one side and fight together in common cause against violence and impunity.”

Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, vice chairman for Mexico of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, declared, “This is a first step to bringing the Mexican newspapers together with common purpose.… We wish to send the message that we will be working together against organized crime.”

Throughout the meeting presentations included references to Alfredo Jiménez Mota, a reporter with the host newspaper who was kidnapped on April 2 this year and whose whereabouts remain unknown. Those present also mentioned journalists Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla, Raúl Gibb Guerrero, Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, Francisco Arratia Saldierna and Francisco Ortiz Franco – all murdered since mid-2004.

Enrique Santos Calderón, chairman of the IAPA’s Impunity Committee and editor of the Bogotá, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo, spoke of experiences of the press in Colombia throughout its battle against drug trafficking, and stressed the need to raise quality standards of reporting.

Gonzalo Marroquín, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, reported on meetings the IAPA delegation had held the previous day with Mexico’s President Vicente Fox and representatives of the judiciary and legislature. He said that the IAPA had called for steps to be taken to combat violence and impunity, among them the federalization of crimes against journalists, that these crimes not be subject to any statutes of limitation, and that stiffer punishment of the guilty be imposed.

IAPA Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti mentioned the immediate support his organization would be able to provide the Mexican newspaper publishers and editors, beginning with the plan for a public awareness campaign and the training of journalists.

The delegation presented an excerpt of the IAPA’s “risks map” depicting Mexico and drawn up by Idalia Gómez of the Association’s Rapid Response Unit. The map, based on the reported incidents of violence in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, seeks to help reporters lessen personal risk as they cover the news.

Following is the full text of the Declaration of Hermosillo:

Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

August 30, 2005

We, executives of Mexican newspapers gathered at the Meeting of Publishers in the Border Region, note with increasing alarm the number of murders of and attacks upon journalists, especially in the north of the country. The deaths and disappearances of news men and women have placed Mexico in recent months in first place among the countries of the Americas in this dreadful matter.

We, information professionals, joined in this act by colleagues from the Inter American Press Association, a hemisphere organization truly concerned at this situation, are determined to alert society to the harm that this criminal violence does to the climate of freedoms in the country, especially to the most precious of freedoms, that upon which all others are based – freedom of expression.

The impact of this violence, brutally expressed in depriving these journalists of life, taking them from their families, friends and colleagues, is expressed also in a climate of intimidation that silences many voices, damaging society’s means of coexistence and sentencing freedom itself to a slow death. It is not only the right to life that is cancelled, but the right to free expression of ideas and the people’s right to know.

Faced with this problem, today we have agreed on a series of actions aimed at defending our professional mission and making those communities that we serve aware that every time a journalist’s voice is silenced society is deprived of vital information it needs in order to consolidate a fairer, freer and truly democratic nation.

This is similarly the first step to bring together Mexican newspapers with a common purpose, in devotion to the trust that society has deposited in us. We wish to send a message that we will fight together against crime.

To this end, we agree the following:

1.       We call upon the Mexican authorities, both federal and state, to solve crimes committed against journalists in Mexico. Impunity is the major incentive for these attacks to be repeated. This call is issued, with the greatest firmness, to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, that they may join together to provide increased guarantees in favor of freedom of expression. In this context, what is essential is to elevate crimes against journalists to federal jurisdiction and establish that there be no statute of limitation in such cases, they being considered to be extremely damaging to basic human rights, not only of the journalist concerned but of the community that he or she serves.

2.       We intend to hold regional seminars for the training of reporters and editors in news coverage in situations of high risk and to advocate among the different sectors of our communities the need to defend and safeguard freedoms and human rights.

3.       We have decided to set up a special team of investigative reporters to look into what the murdered journalists had been reporting on. We undertake to see that the result of the work by the special team will be published in all those newspapers taking part in this effort.

4.       We will conduct in our pages public awareness campaigns about impunity surrounding crimes against journalists.

5.       We will follow up this Meeting of Publishers in the Northern Border Region with similar ones in central and southern Mexico, to provide encouragement to the Mexican press with similar aims. We will take additional steps to get the largest number of newspapers throughout the country involved. Furthermore, we will call upon the electronic media (radio, television and Internet) to give their support to this initiative.

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