IAPA welcomes decriminalization of libel in Mexico

MIAMI, Florida (April 12, 2007)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today congratulated Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón for signing into law a measure decriminalizing libel in his country during a ceremony at his Los Pinos official residence.

During the event, in which delegates of the branches of government, public officials, news media executives and representatives of non-governmental organizations took part, Calderón called for unity among the community, media and government to strengthen democracy and freedom of the press in Mexico.

In his speech signing the libel decriminalization act into law Calderón said that this was “a historic step in this battle to consolidate and strengthen the work of the news media.” He added, “Thanks to this reform journalists will be able to do their work without fear of being jailed on formal complaints by those who consider themselves offended by their reporting. Decriminalization of such matters was a demand of all journalists and a requirement to consolidate our democracy; without doubt it is a conquest of the Mexicans in favor of freedom of expression.”

Calderón also stressed the importance his government gives to the issue of crimes against journalists and the impunity that surrounds them. “I have a personal commitment to the work of the news media that I believe in freedom and in responsibility, and the government that I head is committed not only to respecting freedom of the press but to defending the free and unfettered carrying out of its profession – that is a priority,” he declared. “And we will spare no effort to bring about the solving of crimes committed against journalists and due punishment.”

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, who was accompanied during the official ceremony by Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz and Roberto Rock, chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the organization’s Impunity Committee, said, “The decriminalization is a positive step for Mexican democracy and comes just at a very difficult time for the press in this country.”

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, added, “We hope that such a step will also be taken note of by other leaders in Latin America, with the aim of strengthening the investigative work of the press.”

Ealy Ortiz, president and editor-in-chief of the Mexico City daily newspaper El Universal, said, “This major advance at the federal level needs to be taken up by the state governments, as it is in the interior of the country where the greatest outrages against journalists are committed.” He added, “We celebrate the concern demonstrated by the president about violence, murders and impunity – a constant preoccupation of our organization.”

What Calderón signed into law was a measure in which several provisions of the federal Penal Code were repealed, among them Articles 350 to 365 which made defamation, libel and slander punishable by imprisonment. The Mexican Senate had passed it in March, the Chamber of Deputies having done so in April last year. The law will enter into effect on publication in the federal Official Gazette.

In enacting the law Mexico joins El Salvador, which decriminalized libel in 2004 in amending its Penal Code.

The IAPA had been pressing for similar action in Mexico. In March an international delegation headed by President Rafael Molina traveled to Mexico and met with legislators and President Calderón, urging them to decriminalize libel. Earlier, in January last year, representative of the IAPA, among them Ealy Ortiz, took part in a meeting with congressmen and senators belonging to the Justice and Human Rights Commission in which the issue was raised. The following month Marroquin explained the organization’s stance on decriminalization of libel in a speech before Mexico’s National Congress.

In January 2004 the IAPA had held in Mexico a Judicial Conference on Press Freedom with the participation of local judges and magistrates and news media representatives, citing the shortcomings of the law on access to public information and the negative consequences for freedom of punishing journalists accused of defamation.

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