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. As an example, 68% of journalists in Mexico surveyed by Article 19, a press freedom group that has received U.S. funding for its programs, reported self-censoring.3 While the Mexican government does not use state-owned media to promote itself or to shut down independent media (as Cuba and Venezuela have done), it reportedly has rewarded outlets that provide favorable coverage with lucrative advertising contracts and used various means to punish and intimidate its critics.4 According to Freedom House, officials at all levels of government in Mexico have punished 1 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Annual Report of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, December 31, 2017, available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/docs/annual/2017/docs/AnnexRELE.pdf. Hereinafter: IACHR, December 2017. 2 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Getting Away with Murder: 2017 Global Impunity Index, October 31, 2017, available at: https://cpj.org/reports/2017/10/impunity-index-getting-away-with-murder-killed-justice.php. 3 Articúlo 19, Democracia Simulada: Nada que Aplaudir: Informe Anual 2017, March 2018, available in Spanish at: https://articulo19.org/nadaqueaplaudir/. Hereinafter: Article 19, March 2018. 4 IACHR, December 2017. Congressional Research Service 2 journalists critical of their actions by publicly denouncing their work, pushing media owners (who rely on government ad buys for revenue) to dismiss them, suing them for libel, or using other tactics to intimidate, and/or threaten them.5 Evidence reportedly emerged in 2017 that the Mexican federal government had conducted illegal digital surveillance on journalists and their families, a practice common in Cuba and Venezuela.6 According to Article 19, public officials committed 52% of the 507 “aggressions” that journalists experienced in 2017 (see Figure 2).7 This compares to a regional average of roughly 40% of aggressions committed against journalists being carried out by public officials cited by IACHR in the executive summary of its 2017 annual report. Both Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RWB) produce annual indices rating and ranking countries worldwide in terms of press freedom (See Table 1). In 2018, Freedom House placed Mexico in the lowest, “not free” category of countries, along with the authoritarian governments of Venezuela and Cuba, as well as Honduras and Ecuador. With the exception of Ecuador, press freedom has continued to deteriorate in Mexico and the other countries in that group. Thirteen of the 35 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean ranked in the bottom half of the RWB rankings. Mexico ranked 147 out of 180 countries evaluated worldwide, just above Cuba (173) and below Honduras (141) and Venezuela (143).8 According to RWB, the Mexican government failed to protect its journalists in 2017, becoming the second most violent country for journalists (after Syria). Table 1. Press Freedom Ratings of Select Latin American Countries by Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders Freedom House Reporters Without Borders Rank (out of Country Category Country 180) Category Argentina Partly Free Peru 90 Problematic Peru Partly Free Nicaragua 92 Problematic Brazil Partly Free Panama 96 Problematic Colombia Partly Free Brazil 103 Problematic Panama Partly Free Ecuador 105 Problematic Nicaragua Partly Free Bolivia 107 Bad Guatemala Partly free Paraguay 110 Bad Paraguay Partly Free Guatemala 118 Bad Mexico Not Free Colombia 129 Bad Honduras Not Free Honduras 137 Bad Ecuador Not Free Venezuela 143 Bad 5 Freedom House, Freedom in the World, 2017, available at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2017/mexico. 6 The government also reportedly used spyware against human rights and anti-corruption activists. Freedom House, Freedom in the World, 2018, available at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/mexico; Azam Ahmed, “Using Texts as Lures, Government Spyware Targets Mexican Journalists and Their Families,” New York Times, June 19, 2017. 7 Article 19, March 2018. 8 Reporters Without Borders, World Press Freedom Index, 2018, April 25, 2018, available at: https://rsf.org/en/ranking. Congressional Research Service 3 Freedom House Reporters Without Borders Venezuela Not Free Mexico 147 Bad Cuba Not Free Cuba 173 Very Bad Source: Freedom House, Freedom in the World, 2018; Reporters Without Borders, 2018 World Press Freedom Index. Notes: Freedom House rates countries by providing a press freedom score and then based on that score, classifies the countries as free, partly free, and not free. The countries listed in this chart appear from “most free” to “least free.” Mexico: Crimes Against Journalists and Media Workers For more than a decade, violent crime perpetrated by warring criminal organizations has threatened citizen security and governance in parts of Mexico. Although Mexico’s homicide rate (murders per 100,000 people) remains within the “average” range for the Western Hemisphere (albeit high by global standards), it has experienced a much faster rise in homicides over the past decade than other countries in the region. Experts estimate that between 30% and 50% of those homicides have been organized crime- related.9 Although the illicit drug trade has long been prevalent in Mexico, violence has escalated as an increasing number of criminal organizations have fought for control of lucrative routes to transport drugs, including heroin, into the United States.10 In addition to rising insecurity, corruption and impunity have become top issues of concern in Mexico. Since 2014, corruption scandals have implicated President Enrique Peña Nieto’s family and top advisers, as well as many former governors. Javier Duarte, the former governor of Veracruz once close to Peña Nieto, is now on trial for stealing billions of dollars while in office.11 Corruption in the police and judicial systems is thought to be a reason behind the country’s high rates of impunity for all crimes, including homicides. Many journalists reporting on critical issues such as crime and corruption have become targets for organized crime groups and corrupt officials. While some crime groups or public officials pay bribes to journalists in order to receive favorable coverage, others use threats or other aggressive actions to pressure journalists not to expose their crimes or to retaliate against journalists who do report on their misdeeds. A recent study found that journalists are three times as likely as other Mexicans to be victims of organized crime or drug trafficking-related violence.12 The IACHR and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed ongoing concern about the safety of journalists in Mexico.13 While killings of local journalists have occurred at high levels in Mexico over the past decade, 2017 marked the first year in which multiple well-known journalists were killed (See Figure 1 below). The killings of investigative journalists Miroslava Breach, a correspondent for La Jornada based in Chihuahua, and Javier Valdéz, the editor of Riodoce in Sinaloa, have fostered international concern and been condemned by CPJ and others. Both journalists spent much of their decades-long careers writing on 9 Laura Calderón, Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk, Drug Violence in Mexico: Data and Analysis Through 2017, Justice in Mexico, University of San Diego, April 2018, available at: https://justiceinmexico.org/2018-drug-violence-mexico- report/. Hereinafter: Justice in Mexico, April 2018. 10 CRS In Focus IF10400, Transnational Crime Issues: Heroin Production, Fentanyl Trafficking, and U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation, by Clare Ribando Seelke and Liana W. Rosen; CRS Report R41576, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations, by June S. Beittel. 11 Duarte fled