Investigating, expanding and making public the files of each of the journalists killed in Mexico since the mid-eighties (more than 200 cases and 8 in 2022) is the main objective of the new civil association Alianza de Medios MX.
Made up of 13 Mexican media outlets, the Media Alliance has organized a network of correspondents throughout the country to investigate each case in depth.
“This is about gathering support so that the crimes that have been committed against journalists in Mexico do not go unpunished,” Martha Ramos, editorial director of the Mexican Editorial Organization (OEM), told Efe.
“We thought it was very important that these files and data should be made public for all investigations and that every case of a murdered journalist be accessible,” added Ramos, who this year is chairing the alliance.
According to figures from the organization Article 19, since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in December 2018, there have been 1,945 attacks against the press in the country, including 33 murders, eight so far this year, and two disappearances, 85% more than in the first triennium of President Enrique Peña Nieto ( 2012-2018).
In addition, in 2021, at least one attack on the press was recorded for the first time in each of the country's 32 states.
CIVIL ASSOCIATION, ONE MORE STEP
Ramos believes that “this is a critical moment for the press and media in Mexico” and firmly believes that violence against the press “should be a subject of permanent discussion.”
To reinforce the alliance's position, last week they won the label of civil association, a non-profit entity with full legal personality, to now seek partnerships with the Free School of Law or the Faculty of Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
They ruled out being an NGO because in Mexico “there are many, solid and very prestigious” such as Article 19, Reporters Without Borders or the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“We wanted to contribute something more and that is why we have investigated and collected data to open files for each case,” he said.
On the website of the alliance there are files of each case, some more extensive than others, but all with information.
“We have 80 files complete with the judicial investigations, how far they went, if any, and with information collected for the database to serve as a permanent consultation,” he said.
Ramos explained that the cases are being published as the files are expanded on the alliance's website.
“It's a query file, a single database, and every update is added. If new data appears, we publish it all the media members of the alliance,” he said.
He recalled that there are cases that are “very old”, there are even two cases prior to the notorious murder of journalist Manuel Buendía, which occurred on May 30, 1984.
“We want to go further and continue working to be able to influence the cases that have already been prescribed,” Ramos said.
THE INVESTIGATIONS, WITHOUT PROGRESS
He regretted that investigations into the attacks and murders “never come to anything and at best the perpetrators are arrested, but we rarely know the motive or mastermind behind the events.”
The central thesis of the alliance is that “in many cases there is collusion of authorities and that is why there is no interest in following the investigations to their end”.
“We are not the Public Prosecutor's Office or the Prosecutor's Office, but we can publish all the information we access so that at least it is clear that there is matter to investigate,” he said.
Ramos accepted that there has been an evolution in how the authorities take charge and take responsibility for the investigation of cases of murdered journalists.
“Five years ago, the first thing they said was that it probably had nothing to do with their profession, they dismissed them and now, in the notorious murders of Lourdes Maldonado and Margarito Martínez in Tijuana, people have been arrested but we still don't know the motive and the investigation hasn't been closed,” he explained.
The MX Media Alliance is made up of El Universal, Proceso, Central Axis, El Heraldo de Mexico, El Debate, Vanguardia, El Opinión, Mexican Editorial Organization (OEM), La Silla Rota, Publimetro, Político MX, El Economista and Mexican Radio and Television CIRT.
WITH INFORMATION FROM EFE
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