Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Haiti, Israel most likely to let journalists’ murders go unpunished, CPJ 2024 impunity index shows
- No justice for journalists targeted by Israel despite strong evidence of war crime
- On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom
- Forced to flee: Exiled journalists face unsafe passage and transnational repression
- Israel-Gaza war brings 2023 journalist killings to devastating high
- 2023 prison census: Jailed journalist numbers near record high; Israel imprisonments spike
- Haiti joins list of countries where killers of journalists most likely to go unpunished
- Ecuador on edge: Political paralysis and spiking crime pose new threats to press freedom
- Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
Reporter Without Borders
Mexico October 4, 2010
H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
11850 Mexico, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729
Your Excellency:
We are delighted to learn of your new program to protect journalists who have been threatened in Mexico’s escalating drug wars, and we hope all of its measures will be implemented as quickly as possible.
The urgency of such protection was underscored only last month when El Diario de Juarez, the largest newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, published a front-page editorial asking the drug cartels for a truce. The newspaper was trying to protect its staffers after one of its photographers, Luis Carlo Santiago Orozco, was shot and killed, and an intern was wounded. Until then, El Diario had been courageously reporting on the drug wars. Its willingness to accept self-censorship signals a surrender that is a threat to democratic institutions throughout Mexico.
We at the Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization of international journalists that has been defending press freedom for more than 70 years, are also gratified that the United States government has granted asylum to Jorge Luis Aguirre, editor of the news site, La Polaka.com, who was threatened with death two years ago after attending the funeral of a colleague who had been murdered. If your new program is successful, it may mean that such grants of asylum are no longer necessary. But while the jury is still out on how well the program works, it is our hope that the precedent set in Aguirre’s case will be extended to any Mexican journalist who is targeted by the cartels.
Again, thank you for taking action to protect our colleagues. Since taking your high office, you have acted courageously and wisely to confront the cartels. This latest measure underscores both your determination and your attention to the collateral effects of the battle. We are grateful.
Respectfully yours,
Larry Martz
Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Nos. 211-213
Mexico, DF, C.P. 06500
Government of Mexico
Fax: (202) 728.1698
Maria Otero
Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Olga María del Carmen Sánchez
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
Government of México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152
Genaro David Góngora Pimentel
Ministro Presidente
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
Government of México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152
H.E. Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana
Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.A.
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Fax: (202) 728.1698
Ambassador Claude Heller – Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 688.8862
H.E. Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX 78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 5080.2005
Lcda. Rosario Robles, Presidenta
Partido de la Revolución Democrática
Huatusco # 37, 5o. piso
Col. Roma Sur, México, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.55) 5207.1200
Patricia Mercado Sanchez, Editor
El Economista
Mexico, DF
Mexico
pmercado@economista.com.mx
Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz
El Universal of Mexico City
Bucareli N° 8, Col. Centro
Delegación Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06040
México
Ramón Darío Cantú Deándar
El Maòana
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 714.8797
Alfredo Corchado
The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com
Jorge Luis
jlsierra@yahoo.com
Robert Rivard
Editor
San Antonio Express-News
P.O. Box 2171
San Antonio, TX 78297