IHRP co-authored influential report with key recommendations on this issue
by Renu Mandhane, director, International Human Rights Program (IHRP)
John Ralston Saul speaks with President of the Senate, Senator José González Morfín
On March 13, 2012 the Mexican Senate approved constitutional changes that would make attacks on freedom of expression a federal crime. If approved by a majority of states, the law will pave the way for federal authorities to investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists, media outlets, bloggers and community radios stations, possibly bringing to an end the near total impunity for such attacks. Before the unanimous vote, the “federalization” legislation had been debated and delayed for nearly four years.
The senate approval is the first piece of good news I have received since the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) began working on this issue more than a year ago, and came hot on the heels of my recent trip to Mexico City with PEN International. Federalization of crimes against freedom of expression was a key recommendation in our 2011 PEN Canada-IHRP report, Corruption, Impunity, Silence: The War on Mexico’s Journalists, and was a central demand of the PEN International delegation during meetings with key government officials including Jose Gonzalez Morfin, president of the Senate.
Federalization would be a historic first-step towards ending Mexico’s track record of nearly total impunity in the face of appalling rates of violence against journalists. Since 2000, caught in the crossfire of Mexico’s war on drugs, more than 70 journalists have been killed and 12 have disappeared, with countless more threatened and harassed. Despite this dire situation, impunity has reigned: crimes against freedom of expression are not properly investigated and authorities have failed to successfully prosecute more than 90 percent of cases. The end result is a blight on democracy— the public lacks basic information about the extent of the violence and associated government corruption and cannot effectively hold their elected representatives accountable.
Despite the seriousness of the human rights situation, the excuse our delegation heard time and again from Mexican officials was painfully technical: under Mexican law, crimes against journalists fall within state jurisdiction, and state and local authorities are often paid-off by drug cartels such that no prosecutions take place. Our response was simple: while authorities engage in jurisdictional passing-of-the-buck, lives are being lost and democracy is being threatened.
Outside of Mexico, our advocacy continued with op-eds in the Globe and Mail and the Guardian. Behind closed doors, the head of our delegation, John Ralston Saul, the president of PEN International, wrote the president of the senate to urge passage of the law: “As we explained during our meeting, it is our deep conviction…that it would be of enormous importance if you pass the 2009 amendment to the Federal Penal Code…[federalization] represents a serious step in the direction of dealing with this violence.”
Saul concluded this letter by opining that Mexico’s citizens and writers around the world would “recognize the passage of such a law as an important step in the right direction and an important commitment by the Senate to the reduction of violence in Mexico. “ And, already, they have: you can read PEN International’s statement here.
The reforms passed by the senate are a first step, but they will not take effect until approved by a majority of states and signed by the president. Many commentators expect the bill to be passed within two months. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which holds a majority in the Senate and controls the governorships in most of Mexico's states, is expected to urge state legislatures to pass the amendment. But, with a general election scheduled for July 1, 2012, time is of the essence.
Here in Toronto, I await passage of the reforms with guarded optimism. Federalization would be a small but significant gesture towards ending impunity for the senseless killing of the country’s watchdogs, its journalists and media workers, whose blood has flowed on the streets since President Calderon launched his war on drugs in 2006. The signal from the federal government should be clear: those who aim to expose the drug cartels and the state corruption that facilitates cannot be killed with impunity any longer.
