Miami (March 13, 2014) —The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned threats made against Balbina Flores Martínez, correspondent in Mexico of the organization Reporters Without Borders and called on the authorities to urgently act to ensure her physical safety.
Flores Martínez, who has been working with Reporters Without Borders for 13 years, reported the threats were made to her yesterday (March 12). A press release issued by the press freedom organization said that during a phone call to her Mexico City office a person identifying himself as “Captain Omar Treviño” said, “I am nearby in the State of Mexico, I am coming from Michoacán and I have been hired to hurt you, I know who you are, where you work, I have been investigating you for the past 15 days.”
The journalist, who shares offices with the staff of the magazine Zócalo and of the National Press Workers Union, reported the threat to the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Offenses Against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) of the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and to the Federal District Human Rights Commission. She also reported it to the Protection of Defenders of Human Rights Network and Interior Ministry staff.
Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, expressed his “concern at the serious threat to Flores Martínez, who for many years has been reporting in Mexico on the situation of violence and levels of impunity suffered by journalists in that country.”
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, urged the Mexican authorities “to act swiftly and diligently to protect the journalist and prevent violent actions.”
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
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