MEMORANDUM May 3, 2018 Subject: Violence Against Journalists and Media workers in Mexico and U.S. Policy From: Clare Ribando Seelke, Specialist in Latin American Affairs,
[email protected], 7-5229 This memorandum was prepared to enable distribution to more than one congressional office. The following memorandum provides background information on threats to journalists in Mexico, Mexican government efforts to prevent and punish violence against journalists, and U.S. programs to support journalists and strengthen Mexico’s ability to protect them. For the purposes of this memorandum, the term “journalists” includes all media workers. Press Freedom in Mexico as Compared to Other Countries in Latin America In recent years, international press freedom organizations have expressed concerns about the deterioration of press freedom in many countries in Latin America, precipitated by an increase in violence and other attacks on journalists, as well as politically-driven attempts to curb or repress independent media. In 2017, 12 of the 22 journalist killings in the region documented in the annual report of the Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) occurred in Mexico.1 Mexico, along with Brazil, ranks among the top ten countries globally with the highest rates of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of their population in the Global Impunity Index published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).2 Increasing violent crimes against journalists and the impunity enjoyed by those who perpetrate those crimes have led to journalistic self-censorship in Mexico, inhibiting people’s access to information, government accountability, and freedom of expression.