13 July 1998
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is
writing to express concern for the safety of
journalists covering conflict areas in Mexico. In the
last several months, we have received a series of
complaints -- ranging from physical attacks to
detention -- from journalists working in the states of
Chiapas and Guerrero, where insurgent groups are
active. We ask you to take adequate measures to ensure
that journalists are able to freely carry out their
work.
Below is an account of recent incidents:
Several journalists have been physically assaulted
or threatened by local authorities. On June 5,
photographer Pascual Gorriz of the Associated Press
(AP) was confronted by a state police commander in the
town of Nicolás Ruiz in Chiapas state. The
commander ordered police officers to "take away his
camera (quitarle la cámara)." When the officers
did not comply, the commander began chanting
"foreigner, foreigner (extranjero, extranjero)" in a
clear attempt to incite the crowd to take action. Both
Gorriz and Oriana Elicabe of Agence France Presse
(AFP) were beaten at the Tuxtla Gutiérrez
airport in Chiapas on April 12 by police officers who
tried to confiscate their film. The photographers were
covering the expulsion of a group of foreign human
rights observers from Mexico.
Journalists covering events of legitimate public
interest have been denied access by military
authorities. After the June 7 firefight between the
Mexican army and the members of the Revolutionary
Popular Army (EPR) in El Charco, Guerrero, in which 11
people were killed, military authorities sealed off
the area to journalists for 24 hours. Three days
later, on June 10, 10 people were killed when army
troops and state police stormed the town of El Bosque
in Chiapas. Soldiers stationed outside the town
allowed a handful of Mexican journalists to pass but
barred the foreign reporters, including Janet Schwartz
from Novedades and Tabasco Hoy, Pascual
Gorriz from AP, Oriana Elicabe from AFP, and
Jesús Ramírez from Reuters.
Foreign journalists working in Mexico have been
detained by immigration authorities. On June 28,
free-lance journalist Paige Bierma was returning from
Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, where she had gone to cover
Mexican university students who had visited the town
to commemorate the third anniversary of the massacre
of 17 peasants by state authorities. At a military
checkpoint, Bierma was forced off the bus and
questioned by immigration authorities. Despite showing
a valid journalist's visa, and a press pass from
Newsweek magazine, she was told to sign a two-page
form agreeing to appear before immigration authorities
in Mexico City the following morning. Bierma refused
to sign. She did arrange a meeting in Mexico City on
June 30 with immigration authorities, who apologized
for the incident.
In addition, we have received a number of
complaints from journalists in the United States who
have requested visas at Mexican consulates. According
to journalists' reports, consular officials questions
them about who they planned interview, and what they
planned to write about. Often their visas are held up
for weeks or months.
A government campaign to crack down on human rights
groups who engage in "Revolutionary tourism" in
Chiapas has created new difficulties and dangers for
foreign journalists. On May 5, Darrin Wood, who writes
for Nuevo Amenecer Press, was included in a list of
163 foreigners who were denounced in the Congress for
allegedly entering Mexico through a third country with
the intention of destabilizing Chiapas. Wood, a U.S.
citizen, lives in Madrid. Nuevo Amenecer Press is an
Internet-based agency that covers human rights in
Mexico. In a separate incident, Janet Schwartz from
Novedades and Tabasco Hoy, a Mexican
photographer, and New York Times correspondent
Julia Preston were shoved and confined for two hours
in a school house by hostile villagers in San
Gerónimo Tulija, Chiapas.
As an organization of journalists dedicated to the
defense of our colleagues around the world, CPJ has
been encouraged by the increased freedom and
independence of the Mexican press during your
administration. However, to ensure that journalists
continue to be able to freely carry out their work, we
urge you to take the following actions:
1) Make it clear to state and local
authorities that police officials who attack or
threaten journalists will face prosecution under
Mexican law;
2) Instruct immigration officials that foreign
journalists with a proper visa (FM-3) are
authorized to work in Mexico and should not be
detained;
3) Publicly re-affirm the importance of the work
of the press in conflict areas so that local
communities do not misinterpret your comments about
recent restrictions placed on non-Mexican human
rights observers as license to attack foreign
journalists.
Thank you for your consideration. We await your
prompt response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director